Is there a difference in sound between a coax cable and an optical one?

In theory, optical is better as there can be no chance of ground loops. Ground loops CAN manifest in the digital and analog domains.

In the first, it can produce significantly more jitter, and was for a time a significant source of issues with PC/laptop based systems when powered from the AC. Batter power and better isolation seem to have taken care of most of this, same for USB.

There has been some claims that the receivers just tend to be better for coaxial, but also conflicting claims that coaxial receivers are often not optimized for S/PDIF.

In any event, I use USB for it all now. Sounds good, and much higher bandwidth.

Good point, @three_easy_payments

I had forgotten about the bandwidth differences.

Best,

E

Try signal to noise ratio. 

There are soooo many variables. Coax output, cable, and input implementation etc. Same with optical variables. Do experiment with what you can and use what sounds best to you.

In my own rig after trying 3 coax (silnote, HF Reveal & Acoustic Revive DSIX active) and 2 optical cables (both plastic & glass), on both types both with and without an ifi spdif ipurifier, coax bested optical for both music and video. Since my DAC uses no muting, using the ifi caused a loud zap every time I switched sources (node2) so I left it off. The active AR coax cable sounds most musical and real to me on everything. Good luck!

Just to add to stray-cat‘s comment: AR DSIX is fantastic and can be further improved by adding a LPS such as Kingrex. I kid you not, even the power cable feeding the Kingrex makes a difference