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Toslink Survey / Please Participate

Digital interconnection, IMHO, has always held many myths.

When I first began delving into outboard D/As, jitterbugs, and transport combinations, very few component manufacturers (for some stupid reason) were actually providing coax RCAs (75ohm SPDIF). Interconnection, in many cases, was acheived through the use of Toslink.

Now most of here already know that I am quite an extreme advocator of balanced interconnection including, digital signal. I personally use AES/EBU on XLRs for my 2 channel system.

Out of necessity, I have had to hook up my home theater DVD player to HT receiver using the Toslink (Denon DVD 5000/Denon 3300). And after listening for an extended period of time, I have to ask, (because I obviously must be forgetting),....... Why was Toslink so bad? Why do many people say it sounds like crap?

The system sounds fine. Very natural and "undigital". I won't mention the Toslink cable manufacturer, but it is glass, and the cable costs $39.95. No "Break-in". No "cryo" no crap, just hook it up and go.

When you think about it, many issues associated with interconnection are negated. Balanced????? No Need. RFI, EMI ????? Trivial. Impedance mismatch????? None. Adverse environmental conditions????? Irrelevant. Overall, a very easy, inexpensive, and sonically acceptable interconnection. I don't know about 2 channel usage, but if this any indication, I'm sure it would yield acceptable results?

Can anyone comment? Is anyone still using it for 2 channel? Even if just out of necessity, or otherwise. Does anyone find Toslink unacceptable?

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megasam's avatar
megasam
798 posts
 
I was using "glass" Toslink 1-2 years ago, but have come back to digital RCA cables currently. You can get great sounding generic glass 1.5 meter toslinks for under $30 on ebay with ever higher glass strand count. Back then they seemed to sound as good or better than any under $300 RCA digital cable I used so I gladly sold my expensive cables and just got a couple cheap glass toslinks.

The weakness of toslink for me was the loose fitting connection, if you look at toslink cable sideways you will notice it can sag slightly and not even be 90 degress CDP.
I suspect performance can be much improved if a better connector was developed.

I have since replaced glass toslinks with newer Sterovox HDXV digital RCA for under $100 and increased performance slightly for low cost. Also like Viggen I have used standard Bogdan analog silver IC with with Eichman Silver Bullet RCA as a digital cable with excellent results (Bogdan Silver Spirit IC) .
darrylhifi
498 posts
 
I believe two things have changed over the years , 1 being the toslink connector on most hardware has improved, and the simple invention of a glass toslink connector has provided a more efficient signal transfer. While it is still possible to find better coaxial cables {a little more full bodied IMO, if you willing to spend more money} glass optical is now at least in the same league , does not carry an electrical signal as you stated, and therefore is less prone to carrying ground loops , hum etc.
Its a good choice for great sound at a low price.
rcprince
2,830 posts
 
I used Toslink years ago when I had a Meitner CD3 feeding a Krell DAC (should never have sold that Meitner). The plastic Toslink cables were not nearly as good as the glass ones--don't ask me why; you could bend the plastic cable and mess up the sound badly, to the point of cutting it off. Still felt more comfortable with coax, but my recollection is that at the time it was hard to tell any difference between the glass Toslink and the coax. I've been told by a designer that a lot of it depends on the interface in your transport and DAC. A designer only has so much time and budget to fit their products to a certain price point, so they will generally optimize the interface that they believe will be the most commonly used, and that's usually the coax.
timo
610 posts
 
The only Toslink I have ever used is the Kimber. All I can say is that it worked o.k.
elevick
2,439 posts
 
Consider the care in which manufacturers take with toslink vs rca. Most toslinks are cheap plastic and usually only 1 or 2. Manufacturers seem to take more care and pride in putting in an RCA/Coax digital for every input-usually gold plated. This tells me that internally things are probably not equal either.
Toslinks are definitely more "delicate" where good coax is sturdier, better shielded and better connections.
Finally, I've been told that good coax digital cables were designed for different impedence and voltage levels than regular interconnects.
Try them all out and see for your self?
My toys: Anthem avm-2 & denon 2200 hooked up with 6 nordost blue heavens for sacd/dvd-a and using an older tara labs digital/coax cable for normal 5.1. However, I do use a toslink to hook up my dishnetwork 501 receiver to this!
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