Optical vs coaxial

[struth]

One thing I did notice recently was choice of cable quality certainly does make a difference. I have had USB and Coax and optical cables that caused issues in my system with drop outs and poor connection so a decent quality cable is certainly a good investment.

As to cables actually sounding different in digital systems I am not so sure? From my experience there are marginal gains here.

yeah, the fitments are crucial as is workmanship. its nice to see a decent cable on board too.. gives confidence etc

[Barry]

Optical may have the limited advantage of galvanic isolation, but the price you pay is the need for two electro-optic converters.
Also, IMO, the quality of the fibre optical cable used is far more important than that of the corresponding 75 ohm coaxial cable.

[prestonchipfryer]

Your ears will let you decide.

[Macca]

my optical cable cost a tenner, the coax cost £25 which was a bit excessive but I've had issues with cables failing or falling apart in the past. Professional cable so it's made to last.

I can't tell between them at all in my present set up although in previous set ups I thought optical was maybe very slightly softer sounding.

Optical has the advantage that it can't transfer hum or noise so maybe useful in solving a grounding issue or if your source has a lot of power supply noise.

[nbaptista]

I have here a spare optical cable.I will try it.

[narabdela]

Optical has limited bandwidth.

Coaxial has greater bandwidth so supports high resolution 24bit if that's your thing.

Sorry, but in real world audio applications, this is "received wisdom" nonsense.

[Jimbo]

Sorry, but in real world audio applications, this is "received wisdom" nonsense.

Must have been reading a load of bollox then.

Shouldn't trust anything I read on the internet including what is written on forums!

[Lawrence001]

Sorry, but in real world audio applications, this is "received wisdom" nonsense.

Is it the Toslink receivers that have historically limited the resolution over optical to 24/96? I read recently that you can get up to 24/192, which I assume means someone makes a better receiver now rather than the cables have got better

[Macca]

Is it the Toslink receivers that have historically limited the resolution over optical to 24/96? I read recently that you can get up to 24/192, which I assume means someone makes a better receiver now rather than the cables have got better

yes it's nothing to do with the cable.

[Jimbo]

Yes both correct. I did not say it was the cable just that you can obtain greater bandwidth using coaxial. It is indeed the equipment at each end of the cable that determines how much bandwidth each can carry and until recently optical was limited by the receivers.