Digital Audio Cables: Wire or Optical

Hello,
I beg to differ: why not toslink?
As long as you keep your equipment in its place and are not prone to moving connected components thereby inadvertently pulling/loosening the connecting wires - toslink is a better choice. From my recollection- everytime a "high-end" review has criticised toslink their argument has been that it is not a "secure" connection - cable tends to pull-out. That is because these people keep pulling/pushing their components. Infact, if one was to consider the imperviousness of toslink to RF or AC interference due to running close to power cords , this alone makes it superior to coaxial. Coaxial digital can easily pick-up interference from power cords. Bottom line- if you intend to SUSPEND or TOW/PULL compnents then use a coaxial with its supertight connection. Else go with the toslink. BTW, I also feel that part of the reason for reviewers/manufacturers to tout coaxial digital is because they can keep going upscale with "esoteric" shielding etc and basically delude the public into buying their so-called "improved" designs. Whereas in glass or optical - no such improvement is required and shielding is a non-issue.

In Response to Sean's comment:
Regarding additional two steps - are you saying that with coax signal starts as digital and stays digital? My impression is that it starts as digital and is then converted to some form of electrical (??) and the reverse occurs at the other end. Thus- in theory timing errors can creep into coax transmission thereby leading to jitter. And supposedly this jitter can be even MORE EXTREME than in case of toslink since the potential of RFI/EMF susceptibility of coax can be very damaging to the signal! This possibly again negates the "so called" superiority of coax over toslink. As for bandwidth, I doubt if that is even a restrictive factor. There is enough bandwidth for current signal specs.

Response to Genesis168 and Sean:
Is it possible you are confusing two different types of electrical signals and lumping them into "electrical digital" ? My impression is that signal from pick-up/laser is some form of "pulse-wave electrical" [is this electrical digital?] and then gets converted to a different kind[voltage?]. Anyway - I do not recollect much about this now- too many years have passed. In lieu of that I will make this my last post on this topic. The final point I wish to make is that one should refrain from making blanket statements like "coax is better" OR "coax is superior to optical" since there are a whole lot of other parameters involved (see post by Jcbtubes). My fear/feeling is that a majority of users jump on the coax bandwagon just because it tends to be driven by the reviewers/manufacturers who both have their own axes to grind in this matter. Cheers.

Hi Lbietz2001,
I had the opposite reaction. I once tried a $200 "highly touted" coax digital cable (only 1m lenght) and felt that the music lost its charm. The experience (diluted) was there but the "notes" were lacking. Instead of "musical notes" I heard dome kind of "noise", "harshness" and other sounds which were not in original signal. My friend brought his mega bucks transport along with his $500 coax digital cable and we sat down for some serious A/B comparisons. Imagine his shock! He was completely blown away by my rig using a cheaper $100 optical cable. Next day he put his coax digital for sale. I will NEVER go back to coax digital again- its a sucker product. Cheers

Hi Sherod,
I have the Sony XA7ES and used a AQ toslink. The coax was some fancy Kimber Kable model. Speakers are the ML SL3 powered by (hold steady) Parasound HCA1000A! Owners of SL3- try this combo out but biwire the speakers, I am using Straightwire Rhapsody cables. Unbeleivable performance by the Parasound/SL3 combo - blows away other esoteric amps upto the $2000 range.
My friend used a Classe transport and DAC and some real fancy "silver" coax digital. Rest of setup was mine. Oh- the preamp was the Sony TAP-9000 (NOTE: TAP, not TAE) which by the way is a superb simple 2-3 source analog line only pre-amp. Hope this helps out prospective buyers of toslink cables and current owners of Martin Logan SL3's. Cheers.
Oops- my dac is the Parasound DAC-1500.