Does length matter with Toslink cables

Eldartford--I agree, but also believe commercial fibre typically uses lasers, rather than cheap LEDs, and also use repeaters for longer runs... May not be completely apples to apples.

Eldartford
The Nordost Whitelight that Bigkidz mentions is GLASS fiber,I own a 1.5m .Very good cable,can't really comment on the other ones.
George

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-12ft-GLASS-Digital-Audio-Toslink-Cable-Premium_W0QQitemZ5859534931QQcategoryZ64594QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I ran a 30' run off toslink off a USB audio device to a remote DAC. It was a cheapo toslink, but the quality improvement when I went to a 30' USB run and a short toslink cable was immense. Not immense like the difference between a $5000 and $10000 DAC, immense like going from Bose to ARC.

Just my experience.

Length does matter, but girth will also effect the "sound."

I use the Supernovs 5+. It is better than the 3+. I have not heard the VanDen Hul.

I am not sure that this would apply to optical Toslink, however Steve Nugent at Empirical Audio believes longer is better for digital cables. See his article at the link.

[url]http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm[/url]

Are "Toslinks" really GLASS optical fibre? Plastic maybe. Real glass fibre can go for miles, but part of this is that digital data waveforms can be greatly distorted and still be properly decoded at the destination as ones and zeros. Somehow audiophiles have adopted the idea that distorted digital pulses lead to degraded sound. Like UFOs, it's a waste of time to argue about this.

I can't imagine it does. After all, fiberoptic is what many phone companies bury underground for miles and miles for phone service. Since it's not really an electrical transmission as much as a light signal, I don't believe there would be any degradation. As always, I could be wrong. And again, My vote is for the VdH Optocoupler. Enjoy.