Digital Audio Cables: Wire or Optical

Go with the coaxial cable. This gives you much better sound.

Go with the coax cable (this is a "no brainer"...I wish all choices were this easy!) I assume that by optical, you are referring to Toslink and NOT AT&T glass! Happy Tunes!

Definitely Wire/Coax cable.

Hello,
I beg to differ: why not toslink?
As long as you keep your equipment in its place and are not prone to moving connected components thereby inadvertently pulling/loosening the connecting wires - toslink is a better choice. From my recollection- everytime a "high-end" review has criticised toslink their argument has been that it is not a "secure" connection - cable tends to pull-out. That is because these people keep pulling/pushing their components. Infact, if one was to consider the imperviousness of toslink to RF or AC interference due to running close to power cords , this alone makes it superior to coaxial. Coaxial digital can easily pick-up interference from power cords. Bottom line- if you intend to SUSPEND or TOW/PULL compnents then use a coaxial with its supertight connection. Else go with the toslink. BTW, I also feel that part of the reason for reviewers/manufacturers to tout coaxial digital is because they can keep going upscale with "esoteric" shielding etc and basically delude the public into buying their so-called "improved" designs. Whereas in glass or optical - no such improvement is required and shielding is a non-issue.

The reason that wire is superior to toslink is that there is a lot more "unnecessary" work taking place with the toslink. As such, there is more room for signal loss and degradation.

The signal on a disc starts off as digital. When using a Toslink, it must be converted to an optical signal at the transport. It is then fed optically to the DAC. The Dac receives the optical signal and must convert it back to digital. Once it completes the optical to digital conversion, it is then converted from digital down to analogue. This can be summed up as DODAC, which would stand for Digital Optical Digital Analogue Conversion.

Using wire, you start off as digital. Leave the transport as digital. Arrive at the DAC as digital and is then converted to analogue. This is simply called a DAC process because it is Digital Analogue Convesion.

As you can see, involving optical in the digital chain adds two unnecessary steps. Which one do you think is closer to the "shortest path" and has the potential fo the "purest signal" ??? Sean
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