Digital audio connections help?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hey-


Was wondering if anyone knew anything here about digital audio
connections on audio systems? My system has both optical (fiber optic)

as well as coaxil. I want to connect my DVD player up digitally to the

system. Which digital connection is better, optical or coaxil? I
thought I heard somewhere that coaxil is a 'slower' connection and
optical gets the signal thru faster?


Can anyone confirm this?


Thanks.

P.S. Any difference is sound quality between the two as well?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Sseadoubleyou <Sseadoubleyou@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Was wondering if anyone knew anything here about digital audio
>connections on audio systems? My system has both optical (fiber optic)
>
>as well as coaxil. I want to connect my DVD player up digitally to the
>
>system. Which digital connection is better, optical or coaxil? I
>thought I heard somewhere that coaxil is a 'slower' connection and
>optical gets the signal thru faster?

Either one is fine. Both should be bit-for-bit accurate.
Use whichever you have a cable for lying around.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Sseadoubleyou wrote:

> Hey-
>
> Was wondering if anyone knew anything here about digital audio
> connections on audio systems? My system has both optical (fiber optic)
>
> as well as coaxil. I want to connect my DVD player up digitally to the
>
> system. Which digital connection is better, optical or coaxil?

Neither is better since digital is an on-off " it's there or it isn't "
kind of system so an interface doesn't have any quality issues per se. Very
long cables would introduce problems though due to signal 'degradation',
the waveform would lose integrity.

> I
> thought I heard somewhere that coaxil is a 'slower' connection and
> optical gets the signal thru faster?
>
> Can anyone confirm this?

Very early Toslink optical diodes had only around 6 MHz bandwidth which was
'just enough' to do the job. Current ones are have greater bandwidth. This
doesn't affect the quality of the recovered audio though. I expect this is
what's been most likely used to cast doubt on optical connections. Again,
it's realy only an issue with long interconnects.

Graham

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Chevdo" <chevdo@chevdont.com> wrote in message
news:g6XYe.266899$HI.265892@edtnps84
> In article <uOadnTR2N-UNmq_eRVn-2A@comcast.com>,
> arnyk@hotpop.com says...
>>
>
>>> Which digital connection is better, optical or coaxial?
>>
>> Either it doesn't matter, or the optical connection is
>> better because it helps you avoid grounding problems.
>>
>
> Those optical cables are far more susceptible to damage
> though, they're pretty fragile.

In general you're right because toslink tends to be stiff.
However I lucked out the last time I needed a bunch of
toslink cables, and caught a close-out at Radio Shack.
Those cables were almost as limber as regular coax such as
is used for digital audio.