Optical Audio Adaptor

Product Information

If better to use the receiver; I have an optical cable already. I take it from your opinion that there shouldn't really be anything in it between that and a similar quality coaxial cable? (makes sense to me). In addition to our overview above, people often have specific questions about optical audio cables and connections. Here are some of the common ones. Are TOSLINK, Optical Audio, and Digital Audio All The Same? The majority of TV and AV products launched over the last few years support HDMI version 2.0, but HDMI 2.1 (which supports 8K resolution content and features such as ALLM) is becoming more common among modern TVs and AV kit. Let's look at three common situations where it is beneficial to use TOSLINK over HDMI. Keeping Older Audio Gear In Service Although the cables are fiber optic, the output isn't very powerful. The laser system your local fiber internet service provider uses might be able to shoot a signal down several thousand feet of fiber optic cable, but your TV's TOSLINK port certainly won't.

Pretty much this outside the fact that almost all HDMI cables shorter then 10 to 15ft max are copper. Really, you just need a well shielded cable although it's always a good idea to keep all cable runs as short as possible in my experience. Now I think the biggest advantage of coaxial over consumer optical is that coaxial is will work better over distances greater than ten feet, though I could be wrong about that.Variations like in labeling are just that, "Digital Audio,""Optical Audio," and "Digital Audio (Optical)" all refer to the same standard. Are There Different Types of Optical Audio Connections and Cables? And, in our experience, compared to optical, a coaxial connection does tend to sound better. That's because it has greater bandwidth available, meaning it can support higher quality audio up to 24-bit/192kHz. Optical is usually restricted to 96kHz. Might be I'm overthinking it all at the 'level' of equipment i have...so if you say 'just run what you have' I get it too... :) The main downside to a coaxial digital connection is the potential transfer of electrical noise between your kit. Noise is bad news when it comes to sound quality, but it exists in all AV components to one degree or another. Unfortunately, using a coaxial connection enables noise to travel along the cable from the source to your amplifier. so assuming that the dac is equal in quality i would convert at the receiver. I could be mistaken, but my impression is that analog signals, especially unbalanced, low level signals, are susceptible to noise whereas digital signals, especially optical, are not. So you want to keep your analog signal path as short as possible.

The answer to this will depend on the kit you’re using. If it’s a straight choice between coaxial and optical, we’d go for the former. In our experience, a coaxial connection tends to produce better audio quality than optical, allowing for a higher level of detail and greater dynamics. TOSLINK is just the shortened trade name for Toshiba Link, both named for the company that introduced optical audio as a consumer standard. spk said:so assuming that the dac is equal in quality i would convert at the receiver. I could be mistaken, but my impression is that analog signals, especially unbalanced, low level signals, are susceptible to noise whereas digital signals, especially optical, are not. So you want to keep your analog signal path as short as possible. Even fiber HDMI cables typically have 2 to 4 copper wires, which is why they are still shielded. Pretty sure toslink is no metal outside the connections, which are often plastic also. Noise is hard to pin down sometimes because it depends on your house/apartment wiring, potential ground loops, ECT...Also, coaxial doesn't have the bandwidth required to support high-quality surround sound formats such as Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. So, in a modern home cinema setting, its uses are quite limited. But don’t be tempted to try and use a standard RCA phono cable in place of a dedicated coaxial digital cable. They look similar and can work, but an analogue interconnect has different impedance values from a digital one (50 ohm versus 75 ohm), so won’t work as well. An entry-level cable like the QED Performance Coaxial will do a fine job for most. It also has to be implemented correctly so it's always running of battery. Many claim they do but in reality they really don't. Sinewave batteries can just produce stable clean power when done correctly, which is often very expensive. HDMI’s feature set, upgradability and the fact it can handle both audio and video means you don’t need to worry about too many wires clogging up your system. And, best of all, you won't sacrifice performance.

The TOSLINK system is still capable of carrying up to 7.1 channels of very high-resolution audio. For the majority of consumer setups, there will be absolutely no discernible difference between audio quality when using an HDMI cable or a TOSLINK cable. In addition to the long run as a tech writer and editor, Jason spent over a decade as a college instructor doing his best to teach a generation of English students that there's more to success than putting your pants on one leg at a time and writing five-paragraph essays. While his days of steering students toward greatness are behind him, his lifelong desire to delight, entertain, and inform lives on in his work at How-To Geek.

Also, think of your DAC as the source, not the player (transport) since the DAC is the source of the analog signal. So in this mindset keeping your source in close proximity still applies.