Coax or Toslink, Which is better?


I'm thinking of purchasing a cd player but it only has a Toslink digital out. I'd prefer a coax since I have a Stealth digital coax I just purchased. Is there a big difference in audio quality and signal stability between the two? I have a Marantz cd recorder with Optical and coax digital ins. Sorry if this has been asked before?? Thanks Joe Lienhard joelien@wa.freei.net
joelien
Coax is better. I'm not an engineer and I'm not going to pretend so I can't back my answer up technically. If you were doing a ridiculously long run of cable, then optical might actually be better, but Coax is better.
Coax is superior, if only because you don't have to convert an electrical signal to light and back. Many claim superior sound but I've never used Toslink so I cannot comment. Also, try to audition a nice high-end digital cable. I have the Illuminations D60 and was pleasantly surprised by how much of an upgrade it was for the price.
All things being equal, in most cases would vote for coax.
However, it very much varies from use case to use case, the vagaries of the particular components together with the quality of the particular cable employed.