Another cable question

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Which is better for audio?
Digital Optical, or
Digital Coaxial?

I've looked all over the net and all I can find are basic fanboy rants for one or the other, but no real technical 'proof' that one is superior to the other.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Niether. They're equal as far as I can tell.

My dvd player has both outputs and my receiver has both inputs. I first used OPTICAL only. Great sound no problem. Then I finally swithced to COAXIAL when I rearranged my home theater to incorporate my standalone cd recorder (which I hardly use anymore...). There is no discernable difference.

In fact last summer when I bought the XBOX I undid the cd recorder and plugged in my OPTICAL for the XBOX and COAXIAL for my dvd player. Both sound equally fine. Though I don't have the dvd player add on for the xbox. BUT I have played my dvd player with both cables and there is no real difference.

Kevin

[Xylob the Destroyer]

i looked a bit further and found that most folks major complaint about optical is more of a tendency to 'jitter'....
coax is a 'straight' signal
whereas optical must first be converted from an 'electric' signal to a light signal, then again converted from light back to 'electric'....
so far, i've only used optical, but have never noticed any type of problem or 'jitter' in the sound....
i'm beginning to think that there really is no difference, as the 'jitter' should only occur if you have poor quality equipment???

[yoda313]

Hello,

Xylob - I've NEVER had any JITTER with OPTICAL. I think that's probably either a faulty cable or poor equipment.

Kevin