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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?

128x128buscis2
buscis2's avatar
buscis2 OP
468 posts
 
I agree with all you guys. If I had my choice, I would have NOTHING but 75 ohm RCAs. (If I could have EVERYTHING, I would prefer those TRUE balanced.) Unfortunately, many major manufacturers utilize Toslink. For instance: This particular Denon receiver has 2 Toslink inputs, 1 RCA. Obviously, I would of preferred 3 RCAs. But, Oh Well.

Ultimately, I have been experimenting with "throughputting" the DMX music signal originating from a Motorola cable box, (provided by Adelphia cable) through the wonderful Burr-Brown dacs contained within the Denon DVD5000. Then running analog out to the receiver, where I then bypass the DSPs by running the receiver in the "direct stereo" mode. I am using Toslink between the cable box and the digital input on the DVD player.

Quite frankly, it sounds great. I really cannot find anything derogatory to mention. It provides an excellent source of background music. I would probably guess that the signal is somewhat compressed, but you would never know after running it through the 24/96 Burr-Browns.
buscis2's avatar
buscis2 OP
468 posts
 
Also, Has anyone used that optical "goop" that is applied on the ends? Did it yield different results?
prpixel
826 posts
 
Buscis2,

No wonder you can't here a difference, the cable box is not a great source. Even the digital music channels are only good for background music. Big time Compression.

I do agree that the DVD5000 has wonderful dacs. I owned one for 26 months. It died 4 times in that time period. Three times they replaced the entire transport and logic boards under warranty. When it died for the 4th time, and wasn't under warranty, it went away. However, I got one of the first units off the assembly line, so....

Later,
upgrade1394
49 posts
 
Hi all: there was an earlier thread on this (maybe 1-2 years ago) and I am strongly in favor of TOSLINK. Most negatives are from reviewers, commenting on the "loose connection" that I sometimes wonder if these guys use the toslink cable to suspend/move the components! In my system (Krell HTS2, Sony SCD1, SAT200 HDTV receiver among others) I prefer to use toslink (AQ or Monster Cable) if possible. Unfortunately most so called "high-end" manufactrures tend to be miserly with the toslink I/O (on one hand they talk about how cheap this connector is and then they do not offer enough!) and I may occasionally have to resort to a coax digital connection but never spend more than $40-50 for the cable. My 2cents worth.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
I tried a glass toslink against a cheap homemade 75 Ohm coax (RCA terminated) and preferred the coax. The Toslink didn't sound nearly as good. That said perhaps my cheap transport (Marantz CD67SE) is to blame ?
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