Optical vs coax vs spdif


The local classical radio station 101.1 FM DALLAS. Is giving away their entire CD collection at MY restaurant!!! Awesome šŸ˜Ž, but I haven’t used a CD player in my setup in years. I got on eBay and scored a Marantz PMD321 for like $50 bucks including shipping.Ā 

i want to use my dac (simaudio Moon 280d) but I don’t know what kind of digital connection would work best.Ā 

Should i I use optical, coax, or spdif...Ā 

thanksĀ 
andrewkelley
I’ve never heard any consistent difference between optical and coax using a variety of transports into a variety of DACs. Ā I have consistently heard a difference with usb vs the others, and usb always loses
Depending on the rest of your system and given the quality of the sound in a restaurant environment, the choice of the connection (and the cable) Ā may not and probably will not make an audible difference. Ā 
Congratulations on getting the CD collection.
@kalali thanks šŸ™ the radio station is giving 10 free cds from their library to anyone that comes in tomorrow, if your in dallas Texas stop by New York Sub I’m university park. The CD player is for the home system. Which is pretty badass.Ā 
@lowrider57 the cables sound fine. Ā To be honest I was actually impressed with the soundstage but I haven’t listen to a CD on a high fi system in quite a while. Are usually listen to my turntable or my DAC with roon. I’m going to get a proper connection and use the AES output. I’ll let you know if I hear a differenceĀ 
I've done A LOT of listening over the years to the various digital connection types.Ā  On super expensive gear to mediocre gear.Ā  Almost without fail, I rate them as follows:

1.Ā  I2SĀ  (pretty rare and very equipment specific)
2.Ā  FirewireĀ Ā  (pretty rare and very equipment specific)
3.Ā  AES/EBU
4.Ā  Coax on BNC
5.Ā  Coax on RCA
6.Ā  AT&T ST Glass Fiber
7.Ā  Toslink
8.Ā  USB

Of course this is just my opinion, on my system, in my room and with my music...

@mofimadnessĀ thanks! I’m going to try the aes hookup. I’ll let y’all know