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Coax or Toslink, Which is better?

I'm thinking of purchasing a cd player but it only has a Toslink digital out. I'd prefer a coax since I have a Stealth digital coax I just purchased. Is there a big difference in audio quality and signal stability between the two? I have a Marantz cd recorder with Optical and coax digital ins. Sorry if this has been asked before?? Thanks Joe Lienhard joelien@wa.freei.net
joelien
5 responses Add your response
motokokusanagi
189 posts
 
Coax is generally better for listening (e.g. connection from CDP to DAC to amp to speakers/headphones), but if your plan is to connect the CDP to the Marantz for purposes of recording CDs (????), then optical shouldn't be any worse if the bitstream is identical. Why buy a CDP with optical out only in the first place? 
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jazzman7
347 posts
 
All things being equal, in most cases would vote for coax.
However, it very much varies from use case to use case, the vagaries of the particular components together with the quality of the particular cable employed. 
limomangus's avatar
limomangus
1,426 posts
 
Coax cable .
shawnharvey
30 posts
 
Coax is superior, if only because you don't have to convert an electrical signal to light and back. Many claim superior sound but I've never used Toslink so I cannot comment. Also, try to audition a nice high-end digital cable. I have the Illuminations D60 and was pleasantly surprised by how much of an upgrade it was for the price.
ezmeralda114405
55 posts
 
Coax is better. I'm not an engineer and I'm not going to pretend so I can't back my answer up technically. If you were doing a ridiculously long run of cable, then optical might actually be better, but Coax is better.
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