Hoary Old Chestnut Coax vs Optical

[Cressy Snr]

Having never used optical digital, I tried an optical cable from the SB3 to the DAC.
The received wisdom for many years has been that optical is sub-standard compared to coax.

Given that my AppleTV is coming tomorrow and only has an optical digital out,
I was a bit concerned that optical would be inferior.

I've been switching between the two digital output methods this afternoon using the Beresford DAC front controls
and I'm damned if I can hear any difference whatsoever.

So what's the deal there then?

[Ray P]

Maybe your stuff isn't good enough to resolve the difference!

Seriously, maybe you have a good implementation; common wisdom seems to be that toslink quality is very variable because most of its implementations are a bit cheap and cheerful so the bar, on average, is lower than that set for co-ax.

Ray

[Mike H]

I think that sounds more likely, though I know nowt about it

But indeed a quick read on wiki once informed me there can be several "quality levels", depending on end application. Mainly down to the digital processing it seems, not necessarily the medium itself. Although there can be a problem with cable length apparently.


 

[Cressy Snr]

I think that sounds more likely, though I know nowt about it

What?...That my gear isn't good enough to resolve the differences?

How dare you sir!

[Nick]

I have never understood just why optical has that stigma, though maybe it could have something to do with cable makers

There seems to be a common view (may be true, maybe not) that there is more jitter on optical, but I can't see why that would be. assuming the receiver is doing its job and likewise the transmitter, I cant see why optical would suffer more than coax, at least with optical you dont have to worry about reflections at every solder joint, its TTL in at the transmitter, and TTL out at the receiver. Plus you have the same level of galvanic isolation that fitting a transformer would give. And I can;t see why a transformer wouldnt bring its own problems, but they seem to help, I suspect partly because of the isolation.

The fiber we have coming out of the walls at work that provide phone and IP services seem to work just fine. In the case of the IP the light shines from Manchester via York and ends up in Wetherby, so its not that fatally flawed. Or at least thats how it would seem to me. And that runs at a data rate that would provide 20 192/24 Stereo streams (or at least thats what we pay for, I dont know what the actual rate the line will run at).

[Mike H]

Ah that's what it was, synchronisation of the clock rate. The main cause of the slagging off, where the receiver timing is "off".



 

[pre65]

I thought it was the "conversion" at both ends of the light cable that was the problem ?

[Mike H]

What?...That my gear isn't good enough to resolve the differences?

How dare you sir!

Shall we meet at dawn for handbags at 20 paces?