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 havenā€™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 donā€™t know what kind of digital connection would work best.Ā 

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

thanksĀ 
andrewkelley
Iā€™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 Iā€™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 havenā€™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. Iā€™m going to get a proper connection and use the AES output. Iā€™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! Iā€™m going to try the aes hookup. Iā€™ll let yā€™all know