Optical cannot handle higher resolution audio files. SPDIF can. I switched from optical to SPDIF when I was playing around with a Schiit DAC that would handle high resolution files because optical resulted in no sound.
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’spdif’ (sony philips digital interface) is a digital music data transfer format that can be transmitted/received either optically (toslink) or electrically (rca/bnc) https://www.lindy.co.uk/spdif-connections-explained-i70 optical spdif has some bitrate limitations, yes, relative to electrical spdif |
I think the key test for optical is does 100% of data pass thru or not. Same goes with coax, except that coax potentially could pick up rf noise whereas optical cannot. That's why optical is the most used method to transfer data from one continent to another, around the world. The reason why we have HDMI instead of optical is cost of implementation, because yes you need a set of converters. For CD, up to 24/96, optical is my choice, because it really does decouple transport and DAC. Mono POF preferably since there's only two light waves. |
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