Coaxial digital cable vs Optical digital cable

Thank you Sean!!
Very clear explanation!!

Optical and Coaxial each have their benefits and much of what works best will depend on the individual transport and DAC that you select. A transport with a well implimented optical output combined with a DAC that has a poor optical input circuit may work like crap and vice-versa for the coaxial version of the same system.

Having said that, the general thought is that optical has to undergo an extra set of conversions, making it potentially less accurate. Here's why: a digital signal is transmitted from the transport through a coaxial cable at RF frequencies to a digital input at the DAC and is then converted to analogue. In other words, it is read in digital form, transmitted in digital form and then converted to analogue. Digital to analogue = 2 steps.

Now contrast that to an optical system. The digital signal is read off of the disc. That digital data now has to be converted to an optical signal in the transport. It is then fed through the toslink as a light based signal into the DAC. The DAC receives it as a light signal and then converts it back into digital. Then that digital signal is converted to analogue. Digital to optical to digital to analogue = 3 steps.

With all of that in mind, if i were starting out, i would pick up one of the glass toslinks available here on Agon for about $30 and go from there. There are MANY different cables available and being able to compare / contrast toslink to coaxial designs can be quite interesting. My experience is that the "cheap" glass toslink will be a superior method of signal transfer than even some of the more expensive yet lower quality coaxial designs. I'm not saying that the glass toslink is the best that you can get, only that it offers a very solid yet inexpensive place to start. Sean
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Use a good quality silver cable for best transfer rate

Sean and Yioryos, Thanks.

How about optical cable? Is is usually inferior to coaxial cable?

Try one of Chris VH's Pulsar's. It is a very solid cable for the money involved and would be an excellent starting point. You may never feel the need to go any further, but if you do, you won't be out much money at all and you'll never regret the small investment that you made in the Pulsar. I don't know of too many other digital cables that you can buy for $80 - $90 and say that about.

$80 will get you the standard 1 meter Pulsar and $90 buys the cryo'd version. It is a much better cable than many of the other digital cables that i've tried at many times the price. The Pulsar actually pounds on many of the cables that i've read that reviewers use as their reference.

Not to belittle Yioryos suggestion of the D-60, but i've had both the Pulsar and the D-60. The D-60 sounds lean, brittle and lifeless compared to the Pulsar, even after the D-60 has been THOROUGHLY "cooked" on my burner. To me, the D-60 has all of the traits of what a "bad" silver cable sounds like, even after hundreds upon hundreds of hours of use.

This is NOT to say that i think that the Pulsar is the best that money can buy, but that i think that it is an astounding bargain for what you get. Given that the D-60 typically sells used for twice the price of what you can buy the Pulsar for brand new, and the D-60 isn't even close to being sonic competition for the Pulsar, that should tell you something. Sean
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PS... This is just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.

D-60 Illuminati 1m.Rca to Rca.