Sound Quality of Cables Used With Bluesound Node


Has any one used and/or compared sound quality using optical, coaxial and usb a to b cables on a Bluesound Node. What are the differences?

joscow

I would go with USB!

 

Optical (Toslink):

  • Pros:
    • Uses light to transmit data, eliminating electrical interference.
    • Ideal for connecting directly to a soundbar or AV receiver.
    • No electrical noise transmission.
  • Cons:
    • Limited bandwidth (usually up to 96kHz).
    • Not suitable for high-quality surround sound formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio.
  • Verdict: Good for simplicity and avoiding electrical noise
  •  
  • Coaxial (RCA):
  • Pros:
    • Greater bandwidth (supports up to 24-bit/192kHz audio).
    • Tends to sound better than optical due to higher quality.
    • Commonly found in AV receivers and integrated amplifiers.
  • Cons:

@ellajeanelle +1. USB transfers the heavy lifting to your outboard DAC.
With coax/spdif you will benefit more when you have a great clock in your network player and the BS Node isn’t famous for its clock/processing. 
With that said, personal preferences and system synergy comes into play - so try both the coax and USB and see what you like best. I would not waste time on toslink. 

I agree.  go usb.  I think when I had a node (long ago) they didn't support USb and that was the only time I used coax (reluctantly, but better than optical).