Coaxial Vs Optical

I can hear the difference between the 3 different coax leads Ive got and the optical so it all depends on how good your ears are and the quality of your hifi.If you have cheap DVD player and av amp then a cheap lead from ******s is all you need.

The fact that you feel you can compare the coax & optical means the signal is obviously digital on both (obviously only the coax could be analogue).
If you can honestly tell the difference between the cables on a blind test then I would get down on my knees and suck your balls.
The fact that you can not tell the difference between "monster" cables and a coathanger (sauce: http://consumerist.com/362926/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables) shows that any cable able to take a digital signal as long as it gets from A>B will sound fine.

If you can tell the difference, then I will bet money that it is a difference inside your system that is changing the signal between the outputs and that it is nothing to do with the cable.

So basically, you're talking turd.

It will not make a difference what cable you use, go and buy a cheap one and save your money :)
 
Hifi forums are a warzone when cables are mentioned.The advise i posted is from my experience and i can hear clearly the difference between interconnects and digital cables in my system.To say im talking turd is both rude and offensive and i think we could all do without the ball sucking comments.If you cant hear a difference you are free to post your thoughts but please leave me out of your ball sucking comments.
 
Hifi forums are a warzone when cables are mentioned.The advise i posted is from my experience and i can hear clearly the difference between interconnects and digital cables in my system.To say im talking turd is both rude and offensive and i think we could all do without the ball sucking comments.If you cant hear a difference you are free to post your thoughts but please leave me out of your ball sucking comments.

It's not just me that can't hear a difference. I put it to you that it's not the cables that are making a difference in the sound, more the different connections in your system.
I will leave you out of the ball sucking comments, purely for the fact that I'd never have to do it ;)
 
.....then I would get down on my knees and suck your balls.

:eek::D:D

Porridge on laptop, haha. Totally deserved !

Well like I said, get a sense of humor. I posted that cyrus isn't that special inho and I stand by that going with the kit I have heard. You did not post anything about your setup other than cyrus this cyrus that £10k, which looks exactly like cyrus fanboyism.

Fair enough you call my stuff cheap tat, have you heard this combination ??? NO, so you haven't clue how it sounds. Not all of us are bitter old men who feel big, pushing their expensive equipment list down our throats, and telling us how different these cables are when none of us who have compared have heard a difference.

Well done for helping this thread go downhill, enjoy your time at Ocuk :)
 
Well i have owned marantz 63 from new that i used as a transport with a dac in a box or Cambridge dac magic.Ive also owned arcam delta full system and i still use the cd transport.I also know your speakers need more amp or they sound like *****.Ive been buying and making hifi for over 30 years so you see i do know more than just a little bit.You saw i had a 2 k radio and thought you'd make yourself look good buy saying its nothing special when what you have is old tat and the entire system is worth what £300 instead of posting your opinion of digi cable to the op your very first words you wrote were a dig at my system that you have never heard.Maybe if you dont want a thread to go down hill next time you will post a helpful answer instead of having a dig.What i posted about cables is the result of 30 years experience so when i advised the op to just buy a cheap digi lead or if he wants a longer lead to buy optical i believe Ive given him truthful helpful advice.If anyone here thinks Ive told lies or given false information then say so and give reason why you think im wrong.
 
I use pure 24k gold USB cables - it makes my reference HP laser printer print much sharper with increased clarity and resolution, and much improved depth in the blacks!
 
Hello, OP here,

I'm sorry, I didn't want to start a war about what makes a good system, as you can tell from my stuff I not really a massive music fan (the AMP was free but the DVD was new). Eventually this AMP will be at the heart of a surround sound system but currently I only have a set of B&W P4's which I picked up second hand. I think I'm in way over my head and will just stick with the Coaxial I currently have, as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to hear the difference.

Now everyone just chill :)


.
 
I use pure 24k gold USB cables - it makes my reference HP laser printer print much sharper with increased clarity and resolution, and much improved depth in the blacks!

Thats not a like for like comparison though, Printers use a buffer, and are not a real time application, so if an error is detected in the datastream it can be retransmitted. Also jitter is meaningless as the data will be stored in a buffer in the printer before its printed.

On the other hand, SP-DIF doesnt allow retransmission, so if there is a bit error, error correction will make a "best guess" at what it should have been and pass it along to the DAC anyway. As DAC's are normally unbuffered, jitter (small errors in digital clock signals) will also make audible differences in the final sound.

Take the following "visual example"

1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0
1 1 0 10 1 0 0 01 1 1 0 1 1 0

To a computer, or a laser printer, the end results are exactly the same as the bits will be recieved by a buffer which means only the bit values are important, but the timings are meaningless.

However to a DAC running in real time, the timings can and do affect the sound which is output from the dac. As I already mentioned before the other issue is SP-DIF, and HDMI are real time streaming interfaces which use error correction instead of retransmission. While the correction is pretty good, and you will be able to listen to music even with a fairly high error rate, the fact is your not actually listening to a "bit perfect" end result, mearly a close approximation.

On the whole, copper cables are better for short runs, as there is no need to make the conversion from electrical to light and back again, this removes one possible source of jitter. However on longer cables, optical does have the advantage of far lower transmission losses.

With your denon system, I would stick with a short coaxial cable. It should have lower jitter, and on a short cable bit errors will be negligable.
 
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I use pure 24k gold USB cables - it makes my reference HP laser printer print much sharper with increased clarity and resolution, and much improved depth in the blacks!

I know what you mean I connect my PDA to my GPS receiver with similar cables and it's much more accurate.
 
Oh god.. there's little more futile than 'audiophiles' spending time and money obsessing over silly cables :)

Fuggedaboutit and enjoy the music.
 
Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaables!

I searched for toslink seeking out coax vs optical differences.

I found them.

*goes off to buy something*
 
Optical is nice as it eliminates ground loop issues.

If you don't have ground loop issues coax is fine. Also, 192KHz works with coax which is a nice bonus. :cool:
 
Hiya all I just spent quite a while trying to remember my password so I could log in and give my two cents worth.

I am a huge av/audiophile nut, now I won't start posting my kit in a whose is bigger contest, however the thing I have noticed over the years is that coaxial tends to give better bass and has a fuller sound. Optical can tend to sound a bit bright or harsh.

This is just a general comment though and I am sure you could find cables on both sides which do neither. I still would recommend you use coax if you are running a short connection especially as you will be running this as a av setup eventually.

I will say that all of my coax/optical experience is in the av side of things because I use phono/rca to my headphone amp for stereo duties. There for I may well be wrong on how these cables sound in stereo however my gut feeling is it will still be pretty similar performance wise.

Finally cables do make a difference, it's just that you have to have a certain level of kit and of expertise to hear these differences. Nine times out of ten when some one says such and such cable makes no difference its because they either have never heard it or they don't have equipment of a high enough standard to do the cable justice or they just have not had the mass of experience it takes to be able to judge these things or finally that the cable in question is just rubbish !

This is not meant as a flame so please do not take it as such, just my opinions based on the fact this has been my passion for the past decade.
 
however the thing I have noticed over the years is that coaxial tends to give better bass and has a fuller sound. Optical can tend to sound a bit bright or harsh.

no offence, but this is simply untrue. A cable can not affect the character of the sound.


Finally cables do make a difference, it's just that you have to have a certain level of kit and of expertise to hear these differences. Nine times out of ten when some one says such and such cable makes no difference its because they either have never heard it or they don't have equipment of a high enough standard to do the cable justice or they just have not had the mass of experience it takes to be able to judge these things or finally that the cable in question is just rubbish !

This is not meant as a flame so please do not take it as such, just my opinions based on the fact this has been my passion for the past decade.

Again - this is nonsense. The age old "golden ears/equipment" argument which has no basis in fact and lives in the minds of audio "elitists" who claim to be able to hear such differences.
 
Build your own coax cable, get down to the competitor that i can think of anything to describe lol, purchase some of there 75Ohm digital coax @79p a meter, 2 gold plated RCA plugs at £1.70 each, total cost for a 2 meter coax lead is £4.98p and it's as good as anything costing 3 or 4 times as much.
example 1 :D
S5030586.jpg

As stated the only real world benefit of toslink is no ground loop issues,its all pur digital so the conversion is the biggest problem.
 
Build your own coax cable, get down to the competitor that i can think of anything to describe lol, purchase some of there 75Ohm digital coax @79p a meter, 2 gold plated RCA plugs at £1.70 each, total cost for a 2 meter coax lead is £4.98p and it's as good as anything costing 3 or 4 times as much.
example 1 :D
S5030586.jpg

As stated the only real world benefit of toslink is no ground loop issues,its all pur digital so the conversion is the biggest problem.

So as long as it's 750ohm that's it ? I have those rca heads!
 
Stanleh, there is zero difference between digital cables. And with analogue cables the supposed differences are near myths.

No there are transmission differences between optical and coaxial, and for analogue cables there is difference between supplied free ones and quality cables.
 
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