Optical Toslink cable quality? Is there a difference?

HDMI and Toslink both the cables are used for transferring digital audio from one device to another. The main difference is HDMI cable is transferred higher-resolution audio and videos while Toslink cables are used for audio signals. HDMI replaces the Toslink. But, Toslink is also a good option because it carries 7.1 channels of very high-resolution audio.

Yes the Toslink cable affects the sound. I bought a Bluetooth streamer and connected it to my MSB link DAC 2 using the cheap little Toslink cable. It sounded terrible. I can't even describe how bad the music sounded. Bought an Audioquesr Optilink 3 and WOW. HUGE improvement. So streaming Tidal now sounds as good as CDs on my SONY SCD-XA5400es. Again. From unlistenable to fantastic, the cable matters. 

There is a difference in optical toslinks cables if your downstream system is good enough to reveal it.

15 years ago I went on a toslink merry go round and settled on the Lifatec cables posted above. They sounded best. This was when using them between a CD transport and DAC.

That setup is long gone, and I recently needed one between TV and DAC. I got another Lifatec. OK. Then I got the QED Reference Optical

https://www.qed.co.uk/qed-reference-optical-quartz-digital-audio-cable.html

This was a noticable upgrade over the Lifatec. It even surprised me how much better it was, considering it has less strands of glass than the Lifatec, and it's on TV/Xbox duties only

There is a few other botique optical cables out there. DHL Labs and Wireworld to name some I have not tried.

 

Another rationalization for not spending more while the desire to get something better is eating away from the inside because they don't like the sound that they're getting. The Fox and the Sour Grapes.  That kind of thinking will never come to anything good.

All the best,
Nonoise