Digital Coaxial vs. Optical

What is the difference please?

Are they near the same?????

On 19 Nov 2006 13:46:57 -0800, "lofmark" wrote:

What is the difference please?

Hmmm. Well, the coax is an electrical cable while the optical uses
pulses of light.

Are they near the same?????
No but they are pretty much equivalent.

Kal

In article .com,
"lofmark" wrote:

What is the difference please?

one uses optical, the other doesn't


Are they near the same?????

yes

Thank you for the reply!

On Nov 19, 8:35 pm, Sammy wrote:
In article .com,

"lofmark" wrote:
What is the difference please?one uses optical, the other doesn't



Are they near the same?????yes

From my experience, the optical cable is more fragile. Also, the connection
to your device or receiver never seems very secure either. When I first got
into home theater, I liked the "cool" factor of optical. However, I've come
to realize that the coaxial cable is much sturdier and the connections are
very secure.

"lofmark" wrote in message
oups.com...
What is the difference please?

Are they near the same?????

lofmark wrote:
What is the difference please?

Are they near the same?????

This is taken from the Audioholics website:

"Q: Between optical and coaxial, which connection is going to give the
better sound quality, and why?

A: "Better" is relative. In a harsh environment, optical may have
advantages. By "harsh" I mean:

Cable runs over 10ft
Cable runs in close proximity to video and power cords emanating RF
noise

In most cases, the above conditions would result in negligible impacts
on the signal quality since the signal being transmitted (PCM or
bitstream) is sampled at low frequencies (44-48KHz) and thus are more
immune to noise impairments.

However, using optical cables can minimize the potential of the above
mentioned problems and thus may help to reduce common mode noise. The
only negative about using optical cables is the connection is not
always as secure as a coax one, and can sometimes be compromised easily
by moving components frequently. In addition, optical cables are
usually more expensive than coax ones.

Bottom Line: Using optical cables for your digital connections may help
minimize susceptibility of coupling RF noise into the line and reduce
loss for long runs (10 feet or more). However, optical cables tend to
be more costly and sensitive to abrupt external forces, which may
potentially weaken the connection over time. In any event, either
connection method should yield excellent and comparable results in most
cases."


Check out avsforum.com for these kind of questions too... a wealth of
info is available by guys that are pretty serious about all things home
theatre.

I generally prefer coaxial cable over optical. I have A/B'd both
cables thru a receiver at once and found the coaxials to sound better
over the overall sound spectrum than the optical. The coaxials have a
more direct lifelike sound; the optical feels more like a 2nd
generation sound IMHO. What is interesting is that I have an older
optical cable from AR that sounds muffled and fails to deliver high
frequencies properly as against the GE optical cable I use. So there
may be sound quality issues between different brands of optical cables.
There certainly are with the coaxial cables I have tried. One big
issue with BOTH types is polarity or directionality. Some coax cables
do come with directional arrows. I would advise hooking those up
properly or your digital sound will be out of phase. If you use coax
cables without directional arrows, you need to try the cable both ways
listening carefully to see which way sounds better and then mark the
cable with a marking pen for the output and input sides(a sticking
label is also good to use). Even do this for the optical cable as
well. There is some unknown phenonena going on here that I cannot
explain but it is there. Also do the same for your subwoofer cable as
well.

girdalia wrote:
I generally prefer coaxial cable over optical. I have A/B'd both
cables thru a receiver at once and found the coaxials to sound better
over the overall sound spectrum than the optical. The coaxials have a
more direct lifelike sound; the optical feels more like a 2nd
generation sound IMHO. What is interesting is that I have an older
optical cable from AR that sounds muffled and fails to deliver high
frequencies properly as against the GE optical cable I use. So there
may be sound quality issues between different brands of optical cables.
There certainly are with the coaxial cables I have tried. One big
issue with BOTH types is polarity or directionality. Some coax cables
do come with directional arrows. I would advise hooking those up
properly or your digital sound will be out of phase. If you use coax
cables without directional arrows, you need to try the cable both ways
listening carefully to see which way sounds better and then mark the
cable with a marking pen for the output and input sides(a sticking
label is also good to use). Even do this for the optical cable as
well. There is some unknown phenonena going on here that I cannot
explain but it is there. Also do the same for your subwoofer cable as
well.

For the benefit of newbies, be aware that the above appears to be an
attempt at humor, compiling a whole raft of cable-related myths and
fables into one very long paragraph.

I laughed 'til I cried. 4 stars.

RichC

"rdclark" wrote:
girdalia wrote:
I generally prefer coaxial cable over optical. I have A/B'd both
cables thru a receiver at once and found the coaxials to sound better
over the overall sound spectrum than the optical. The coaxials have a
more direct lifelike sound; the optical feels more like a 2nd
generation sound IMHO. What is interesting is that I have an older
optical cable from AR that sounds muffled and fails to deliver high
frequencies properly as against the GE optical cable I use. So there
may be sound quality issues between different brands of optical cables.
There certainly are with the coaxial cables I have tried. One big
issue with BOTH types is polarity or directionality. Some coax cables
do come with directional arrows. I would advise hooking those up
properly or your digital sound will be out of phase. If you use coax
cables without directional arrows, you need to try the cable both ways
listening carefully to see which way sounds better and then mark the
cable with a marking pen for the output and input sides(a sticking
label is also good to use). Even do this for the optical cable as
well. There is some unknown phenonena going on here that I cannot
explain but it is there. Also do the same for your subwoofer cable as
well.

For the benefit of newbies, be aware that the above appears to be an
attempt at humor, compiling a whole raft of cable-related myths and
fables into one very long paragraph.

I laughed 'til I cried. 4 stars.

RichC

God, I hope he is kidding, but I think he is serious!

Chip

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He hasn't replied yet because he's out topping up the blinker fluid in
his car... ;-)