Which Connectors to use?
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New member Username: Mrted46Post Number: 4 Registered: Jun-05 | This is a real newbie question but what is the best connection to use when connecting the audio receiver to the HT system? Is is the optical cable? |
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Silver Member Username: DiabloFylde Coast, England Post Number: 112 Registered: Dec-04 | Yes. Unless you are extremely clumbsy and will tend to to bend it too much - and break the glass fibre inside it. Some people claim that co-ax sounds better, but they tend to be the clumbsy people, who have broken the fibre. Have a look at the cable forum to see who they are.  |
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capww8 Unregistered guest | i would say it's cheaper to get a quality coax than it is to get a quality optical. |
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New member Username: Mrted46Post Number: 5 Registered: Jun-05 | Thanx for answering me. I am very careful and won't break it and the additional price is ok for quality. |
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Gold Member Username: Paul_ohstbucksPost Number: 1080 Registered: Jan-05 | Either will be fine. My preference and setup is coax. If you have a long run, optical will be better. Any well made and shielded RCA cable will work just fine. |
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Silver Member Username: DiabloFylde Coast, England Post Number: 113 Registered: Dec-04 | To qualify my earier post, both coax and optical should sound identical in an ideal world. The digital signal has a system to check that it is okay, regardless of the method of getting from one box to the other. In a computer system, you would get an error message "connection failed" if something went wrong. In a computer comms situation, the data would have been re-transmitted several times to try to get a 'good copy'. In audio, retransmission has a more limited time window and will not stop - as that would be the worst form of interference. There is also no log to tell you that it has actually happened. I have had very audible problems using good quality coax cable caused by transient EMF interference. There may also have been subtle signal degredation which wasn't quite as obvious. This cannot happen with optical - hence my preference. Regards, diablo |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 3964 Registered: May-04 | Diablo - Please explain where the "transient EMF interference" was coming from in an interconnect application. I am unaware of anything which could cause electromotive force in this situation. |
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capww8 Unregistered guest | The EMF interference could have been from anything, interconnect running too close to power chords and/or transformers could be a cause. Optical would be les susceptable to these types of interference, though to me, the cost of an optical cable capable of accurately, and reliably transmitting signal is somewhat prohibitive. If I have a choice between a $200 optical cable, and a $200 coax... I'll take the coax. If we're talking about $50 cables, the preference would probably be to optical... |
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Silver Member Username: DiabloFylde Coast, England Post Number: 114 Registered: Dec-04 | Jan, I don't think my description 'transient EMF' ElectroMagnetic Field, was incorrect. Though it is perhaps a fancy term for what was happening. I had a Pure tuner attached to my NAD receiver by coax cable. Whilst listening to the tuner, I often turn on my television to select programs to record on DVR. I noticed that there would quite often be an audible distortion in sound - together with the NAD display changing to 'source selection' for a second or so, whenever the television was turned on, or off. There is no direct connection between my television and the NAD (or the tuner). The television is actually on a different power circuit. The only link was an optical connection between the DVR and the NAD. I removed the DVR/NAD link and the problem remained. Swapping the tuner/NAD link from coax to optical solved the problem. The only source of interfence near to the NAD which was connected to the television was the DVR and associated RGB scart cable - now with no direct connection at all. Am I being unreasonable in assuming that the coax cable was picking up EMF from the scart cable or DVR? If the interference was being transmitted through the mains, then it must have been transmitted to the NAD via the coax cable. Either way, changing to the optical has cured it and I don't intend to change back. Regards, diablo |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 3972 Registered: May-04 | Whether the problem was caused by radio frequency interference (RFI) due to a poorly designed tuner (RF?) section in the digital video recorder (DVR) or the elctromagnetic field (EMF) of interference caused by a poorly shielded component or cable, there wasn't any likely source for electromotive force (EMF). What we have here is a case of intials not being enought to tell everyone what the writer's intent was (WIW). |
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Gold Member Username: Paul_ohstbucksPost Number: 1087 Registered: Jan-05 | $200 cable?? Gawd, I sure hope that it's about 30 meters long if you're paying that much....geez. There are plenty of quality 'well-shielded' cables available for much, much, much less. You must shop at a 'boutique' market if you're throwing money away so needlessly...... |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 3974 Registered: May-04 | Geez, Paul, you must not have heard the POP! |
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Silver Member Username: EramseySouth carolina United States Post Number: 156 Registered: Feb-05 | Hey guys let me take the time to make a few corrections in this thread. First of all I personally choose coax digital because even through it is subject to a very small amount of EMI or electromagnetic interference, not EMF or electomotive force which is a fancy word for voltage, it is superior to optical(Toslink) in that it has a much greater bandwith. Coax digital is better than optical for long runs not vice versa because with a length of about 20' or more the optical signal will begin to degrade, especially with additional bends in the cable from running it around corners,etc. Some people think that an optical connection sounds more "compressed" than coax, so this is the reason audio purists tend to favor coax. Diablo's situation is an unusual one because for the most part the amount of RFI or EMI that can affect a decently shielded coax cable is next to nil. Anyway, happy listening. |
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Silver Member Username: EramseySouth carolina United States Post Number: 158 Registered: Feb-05 | Sorry Guys for the typo, I meant electromotive force, not electomotive. E.Ramsey |
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Silver Member Username: DiabloFylde Coast, England Post Number: 116 Registered: Dec-04 | Eric "Diablo's situation is an unusual one because for the most part the amount of RFI or EMI that can affect a decently shielded coax cable is next to nil. Anyway, happy listening." I use fairly decent Thor interconnects - the best my local supplier stocks. The problem was as described and the drop-outs ceased with the switch to optical. I'm not convinced that coax digital cable is superior for the sort of lengths we are talking about here. For a start, these connections use the S/PDIF checksum protocol, as outlined in this link - http://www.epanorama.net/links/audiodigital.html#spdif Where the transmitted data packets have parity errors, the signal is dropped for a short time. This is not common with optical links. Apologies for confusion caused by using the term EMF. I should have put RFI / EMI. |
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Silver Member Username: EramseySouth carolina United States Post Number: 159 Registered: Feb-05 | Every type of digital transmission uses error correction Diablo,as this is an important part of the process. Nearly all of high end cd transports and players if equipped with a digital output will have a coax digital connection. I read the article which confirmed my initial point which I already knew that coax is better than optical for longer runs. As far as a dropping of the signal goes this will occur with both types of cables and depend on the source. Cd's an DVD's do not have a constant bitstream and therefore will breifly,mute/drop the signal between tracks at least with any DA converter in any piece of equipment I have ever encountered. E.Ramsey |
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