Are there differing qualities of optical cable?


I currently have my Gungnir Multibit DAC connected by optical cable to my Oppo player which I use as a transport. I also have a Cardas coax cable connected to a different input.  The optical sounds better. My question is, are there different qualities of optical cable you can use, or is one the same as the other?
128x128rvpiano
There are differing qualities of optical cable, yes. Glass cables are generally better than plastic cables (almost always true). ST optical connections are better than Toslink optical connections. (almost always true)

Coaxial RCA cables for digital are almost always better sounding than any optical cable. For audio (A Caveat).  As in-I've never heard a optical cable outperform a coaxial connection.

the right inexpensive coaxial cable can sound better than some expensive ones.  Try a few, even some well built cheap ones.

Your experience with the optical cable seems to be saying that something is likely amiss, as George is no dummy. His coaxial cable will be well built and sound good.

Your situation may be exactly true and right but it would be very much against the odds that the record of experience indicates as what is likely to happen..

How long is the Cardas COAX?  If it's too short, you could be experiencing signal reflections back to the spdif transmitter.  I have also experienced differences in quality of toslink cables.  The cheaper ones will have a single plastic mono-filament.  The better ones will have a high count glass fiber medium.  Look at the Lifatec cable, or the upper end Wire World cable.

For the COAX, try a 6 foot Blue Jeans cable Beldon 1694A.  Or move up to something like a DH Labs D-750 cable.

@rvpianos 

To add to what teo_audio has stated regarding coax, I am using coax from my Oppo to Yggy. In fact, Schiit recommends coax (over optical). I asked :)

That said, all of my cables are from https://www.bluejeanscable.com/
It shouldn't sound different unless the DAC is not handling jitter very well in which case you may need to experiment to find out what works best in your situation.

I assume you are playing CDs which should be fine. Just avoid using this DAC for any higher than 18 bit files as it probably just truncates and throws out the least significant bits on any digital music above 18 bit.