optical or coaxial audio cable?

Sean, I think the referance was to degredation of optical whenever it is disturbed. Buried optical lines remain untouched and unaffected.

If the cables are anywhere near heavily traveled roads, railroad tracks, construction zones, etc... the soil will constantly be shaking, vibrating and settling. This vibration will be transferred to the cables that are buried in the soil. Same things happen to very heavy buildings due to vibrations transferred through the ground i.e. foundations cracking, buildings shifting, etc.. If what Ellisonb said is true, these companies will be out digging up cables at random intervals having to deal with cable degradation. I sure hope he's wrong or we can expect a LOT of intermittent phone and / or high speed internet interruptions in the future. Sean
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sean....In newer subs lots of optical cable is used. It, like everything else on the boat, will survive depth charge attack!!!

I just tested the difference between co-ax and optical cables in my system. I'm running a Denon DVD-2500 to a Rotel RSP-1066 using a Monster Cable fiber-optic interconnect (0.5 M) and a Monster Cable Video 2 interconenct (1.0 M) for the co-ax connection (yes...a video cable for a digital application). The test was using Coldplay's "Parachutes" CD and the RSP-1066 was in PCM mode. The fiber optic cable has been in use for 3 years. The Monster Cable Video 2 interconenct hasn't really seen the light of day.

I could immediately hear a difference, but I thought that perhaps I was somewhat biased since I knew which cable was which, so I had my wife compare the difference. I asked her first to describe the differences between "A" and "B", then to specify which she preferred.

We both preferred the co-ax connection.

Nrenter...I also have the Rotel 1066, and have tried out both coax and optical hookup. I hear a slight difference in gain, but that's about it. (Gain differences are easy to misinterpret as sonic quality). I will take another listen.