Toslink or 110 ohm aes/ebu?


My aging Museatex transport broke down and I am awaiting delivery of a CEC TL51X. I use a bidat which was recently upgraded by John Wright. Because I also have a Wadia 170, which only has a coax connection, I used a VDH Octocoupler toslink between the transport and the bidat. With the CEC I can use either the toslink or a 110 ohm aes/ebu interconnect. Any thoughts on this as to which would make the better connection with this equipment and recommendations for which brand? I know the gospel here is to try different setups and see which I prefer, but I looking for recommendations as to where to start.
conedison8

Showing 3 responses by upgrade1394

Why do you feel toslink is worst? In my opinion coax is the most aggravating, uncertain and ultra dependent upon construction choices whereas an optical wire with standard materials is very consistent and not prone to electrical interference (which the coax is very susceptible to). All I can dig up in archives is reviewers comments that toslink cable does not form tight connection and in their rearrangement practices of pulling components and plugging new wires they may inadvertently pull the toslink cable out. To those I say- execrcise greater care and arrange the wiring neatly. Im my own experience, I have always preferred the richness and bass performance of toslink connection, while the coax has resulted in anemic sound in majority of set-ups. I do concede that a well designed, insulated and tight tolerances in impedance of connectors can bring the coax connection on a par with most toslink cables and offer "real tight" gripping power (you can almost lift components from one end) which the reviewers yearn for.
"Stereophile magazine presented jitter measurements in the article "Jitter Games" where they stated "Critical listeners agree that the Toslink sounds substantially inferior to coaxial"

Since S'phile says so- it is gospel! Its funny that the same rag eschews measurements as not being reflective of performance but when it suits their purpose, they pull the measuremens argument to support their flimsy conclusions. All probably done to allow manufacturers a rationale for marketing overpriced coax cables. Trust your ears, go with what sounds better to you. The previous argument is similar to the one where LP users love the sound due to the additional distortions in the medium, makes it warm and fuzzy..
I would suggest we should trust our "own" opinion above all else. In my experience of 22 years and having tried many good value and high-end pieces of equipment (e.g. currently Theta CB3 Xtreme DACS, Classe SSP-800, DVD-10AX, SCD-1 to name just a few) I have ended up sticking with a toslink connection. Perhaps part of the reason may be my reluctance to shell out $400+ for a COAX cable (maybe thats what it takes to get better sound) but the bottom line is that the 3 toslink inputs (in the CB3) are occupied while the coax inputs sit unused (unless forced to go that route due to 4th source component). Many of the criticisms of toslink have nothing to do with cable itself, more with how the output jack on the source component is designed. There is overemphasis on the solidity/rigidity of the connection itself, as stated earlier the intent is not to suspend a component by the cable!
In a nutshell- I prefer the toslink to coax in my set-up and furthermore recent experience with SSP-800 indicates that HDMI for audio is even superior (have to listen critically in 2-ch audio mode) but more on this later.