Toslink from TV to DAC???

Mistercrash,

The reason you are getting that noise is your cable box is outputting a 5.1 signal (Dolby/DTS) and you are trying to convert it with a 2 channel DAC. The two aren't compatible. The cable box needs to be able to downsample to stereo PCM in order for that set-up to work.

I had the same problem and what I had to do was connect the cable box to my tv using HDMI and then use the toslink output on my TV to a stereo DAC. This worked because my TV only outputs stereo (no multi-channel) through toslink.

I've tried running both Toslink and coax digital output from my cable box to my DAC, and it was a horrific failure both ways. I tried this with both a CI Audio VDA-2 and a Wadia 781i, and with both DACs, I got this annoying loud fluttering sound that would not go away. Moreover, I tried this with two different cable boxes (both the same model) in two different locations, and had the same results. I guess Comcast doesn't want me to use their digital audio.

It's probably worth a try, but there's a chance that it might not work.

I run toslink from my new Samsung LED TV into the DAC card in my Accuphase integrated amplifier. Works excellent.

No worries, but some sources will sound louder than others will. I run the cable box, blue-ray player and xbox 360 into the TV using HDMI, from the TV to the DAC using a 20 foot glass toslink cable.

No noticeable delay at all.

I use both a toslink cable from the cable box and one from the TV to my pre-pro. The reason being is I sometimes watch TV from the antenna while recording two programs on the DVR.

I normally use a Toslink direct from the cable box to the dac. As an experiment I tried the tv Toslink to the dac. No sync problems either way but I prefer direct from cable box to dac. It just seems more elegant that way. Hey, it's tv sound which is mostly mediocre anyway.