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Toslink or 110 ohm aes/ebu?

My aging Museatex transport broke down and I am awaiting delivery of a CEC TL51X. I use a bidat which was recently upgraded by John Wright. Because I also have a Wadia 170, which only has a coax connection, I used a VDH Octocoupler toslink between the transport and the bidat. With the CEC I can use either the toslink or a 110 ohm aes/ebu interconnect. Any thoughts on this as to which would make the better connection with this equipment and recommendations for which brand? I know the gospel here is to try different setups and see which I prefer, but I looking for recommendations as to where to start.
conedison8
moonlightaudio
30 posts
 
I always get the best sound in my system using AES/EBU Cables.

Interesting comments from people, I have an acquaintance in CA who swears by Toslink. Of course the noise in CA is much worse then here in Colorado over the power line and my friend feels that his system is much quieter when he uses the optical cables. I live less than 3 miles from the power plant and never found the advantage he did. Now SPDIF coax uses .5 volts while the AES/EBU uses 5 volts. I think the higher signal level makes for a improvement in signal to noise ratio. At least for me in sunny Colorado.
swordshield's avatar
swordshield
8 posts
 
I'm running my upper end all analog, cd player-preamp-amp. Want to take a digital signal from my cambridge 840c, Toslink or SPDIF to a Behringer DEQ 2496 with AES/EBU or Toslink to do some bass eq then to another preamp to control volume .Everythang I've read say's Toslink stinks.Will investing in a Hosa cdl-313-SPDIF to AES/EBU converter work? sound ok?. And will cd player-processor-another preamp-amp line up be ok?Will an analog sub eq in place of the processor,analog from cd be beter?EQ's have phase shift.Digital path only one DAC. ?Toslink vs converter? ?Digital eq vs analog eq?
swordshield's avatar
swordshield
8 posts
 
Made a mistake,should not have said one DAC but NO DAC.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Sword,
I am using my 840c as a DAC and it has almost NO tolerance for jitter. I am using either an AirPort Express, known for its jitter or a Dishnetwork receiver to feed optical.......
In both cases, and the AE is worst, the system makes a real screech, almost like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Any suggestions?
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Magfan,
Stereophile claims low word clock jitter (258ps)on digital output and 10x worst performance on analog out (sidebands).

http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple

I use Airport Express (smooth and clean) but my Benchmark DAC1 is jitter suppressing so I cannot really comment. Your unit might be defective or Toslink (or adapter) don't make good connection.
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