Toslink

I am limited by my smart tv to only output Toslink.

To my DAC. TV sound suffers.

There was a Digital conversion box suggested. But inputting Toslink and outputting coax will still limit quality to Toslink. Is that not correct?

@mdrone wrote:

I am looking at a DAC that would require me to connect my streamer via toslink. I have read in the past that Toslink is inferior to SPDIF and USB connections.

Is that still true?

Does it depend on the the Toslink cable used?

With optical I’d say it mostly comes down to the specific input implementation of your DAC, and the context of use. I’m running optical from my music server/HTPC to the excellent ditto input of my DAC with a full 24-bit/192kHz PCM signal, and it comes in handy electrically isolating and preventing the noisy PC environment from entering my DAC - not an issue for you though. Or else I’ve had good results with AES/EBU and BNC connections in particular, in addition to USB via a SOtM streamer and external PSU, high-end sound cards (AES/EBU), the Audiophilleo 2 + battery PSU (BNC) and others with different, prior DAC solutions.

Having read quite a lot on the generally negative assessments (not least theoretically) on optical I/O, I was perhaps surprised to learn of its prowess in my setup - findings that mayn’t be replicated by others in their particular setup contexts, one might add. I was however happy to make my very own discoveries here, and it points to avoiding generalizations and instead making an effort towards forming your very own opinion based on actual experience, as well as trying to see the forest for the trees; what small increments in sonic advance are worth chasing, not least at what cost, and what is best left alone for a more pragmatic choice in the bigger scheme of things. Only you can decide, but I least have the courage to stand by whatever you deem important - irrespective of the opinions of others and any general consensus (formed on whatever basis).

Toslink can be good from a computer (like and old Mac) as it knocks out the computer noise with a physical electrical break . Modern streamers seem pretty quiet to me. All other things being equal they are bandwidth limited.