Digital Interconnect

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in my experience, the superiorty of optical interconnect over coax becomes more apparent as the quality of your transport/dac increases. in my setup, i have optical, "six-9's" coax and toslink connected simultaneously between my tranport (accuphase dp-90) and dac/digital preamp (accuphase dc-330). with my remote i can switch among all 3 links. i've done this for myself and and numerous friends whose opinions i respect. in every case, on every cd tried, the optical has come out on top. it is more open, has greater clarity and detail and is ultimately more musical than the other 2 alternatives. i haven't listened to the theta/krell for awhile but recall preferring the optical on this combo, too. if i were you, i'd concentrate on upgrading both your transport and dac before spending the $400 or more a piece of really good optical cable will run you.

The Optilink Pro 2 is very good, and if the AT&T is well executed will usually out-perform any coax in my experience. But, leaving the coax connected is potentially a bad move as you are leaving an earth link between the two. If you remove the coax, you will probably hear an improvement in the sound of the AT&T connection. All of this stuff about digital interconnects is dependant on where the manufacturer has placed the most effor in the equipment, and some people prefer coax just because the earth noise adds warmth.