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Coax vs optical...

audiobliss said:
My only problem with toslink is the little funny shaped plug. Always a PITA to get it in the funny shaped hole.
Why couldn't it be round like normal plugs.
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This is just a speculative guess, but I think the shape of the TossLink opening might have to do with the ease of hinging the spring loaded dust doors installation, being it is much easier, & probably cheaper to facilitate the jack`s dust door`s hinge`s mounting with a flat side incorporated into the jack`s opening design.

Being the optical connection`s light path`s wave doesn`t care about the orientation of the fiber optic path`s light wave`s polarity, as there isn`t any, at least not that I`m aware of, just digital based on/off pulses of light.
 
Bill Ferris said:
This is just a speculative guess, but I think the shape of the TossLink opening might have to do with the ease of hinging the spring loaded dust doors installation, being it is much easier, & probably cheaper to facilitate the jack`s dust door`s hinge`s mounting with a flat side incorporated into the jack`s opening design.
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And it also helps to remember to remove the little, almost invisible guard cap on the Toslink terminals.
 
Houas07tc said:
I am comparing them at the moment switching back and forth. My ears can’t tell the difference, but something about the coaxial. The top end sounds kind of like when you have the speaker wires reverse on one side.
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I'm comparing the two and I don't feel a change in the sound quality. Even between RCA analog and fiber in an A/B test (less thatn 1 second) I feel no difference, maybe it depends on the equipment used.
 
Bill Ferris said:
Yeah, the optical cables plug`s dust cap removal will be helpful I imagine !
Always a good idea to keep one`s optics clean.
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Funny that I'm reading this today. Fielded a call this morning for this very thing. Dirty ends, scuffed ends, fractured cable? He sent me a picture of both ends and one still had the cap. He said it was actually working intermittently and the cap was tough to remove. He was rationalizing that it was possibly a directional cable and the cap was part of the assembly or just had the wrong cable.
 
I have a nice system, but not a top end system. I could never tell the difference in sound. I use a WiiM Pro and it takes a certain coax cable end or it will not fit.
 
grey said:
If I'm looking at the right thing, the rear panel could be interfering with the fit.
View attachment 3413387
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I see no BNC socket present on the bad photographic angle of this device`s rear panel picture !

The what appears to be the S/PDIF coax jack, is to the left of the RJ-45 ethernet jack at the far right, and doesn`t look like it`s position would be interfered with a reasonable sized S/PDIF coax cable`s plug inserted in the jack with a ethernet cable`s plug also inserted.
 
Bill Ferris said:
I see no BNC socket present on the bad photographic angle of this device`s rear panel picture !

The what appears to be the S/PDIF coax jack, is to the left of the RJ-45 ethernet jack at the far right, and doesn`t look like it`s position would be interfered with a reasonable sized S/PDIF coax cable`s plug inserted in the jack with a ethernet cable`s plug also inserted.
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You were speculating the possibility of a BNC and I was speculating the possibility of a large insulator on an S/PDIF cable. The craptastic picture is the best I could quickly grab from the manufacturer. Between all the "unuiqe" cables out there and the recess in the back panel, who knows what the situation is until you have it all in front of you.
 
grey said:
You were speculating the possibility of a BNC and I was speculating the possibility of a large insulator on an S/PDIF cable. The craptastic picture is the best I could quickly grab from the manufacturer. Between all the "unique" cables out there and the recess in the back panel, who knows what the situation is until you have it all in front of you.
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Well then, one has to not choose a overly expensive esoteric 75 ohm coax with a unnecessarily fat diameter RCA connector shell. if intending to use that DAC`s S/PDIF coax recessed RCA input.
 
Bill Ferris said:
Well then, one has to not choose a overly expensive esoteric 75 ohm coax with a unnecessarily fat diameter RCA connector shell. if intending to use that DAC`s S/PDIF coax recessed RCA input.
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Yeah, considering that the connectors in the unit are probably just soldered to the PCB, if you use "high-end" cables that require a lot of force to insert and pull out you'll probably end up breaking the connector off the PCB.
 
mrehorst said:
Yeah, considering that the connectors in the unit are probably just soldered to the PCB, if you use "high-end" cables that require a lot of force to insert and pull out you'll probably end up breaking the connector off the PCB.
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Possibly, but I`ve seen many times where the circuit board mounted jacks have been solder added by hand after the board has been wave soldered to beef up the soldered jacks U shaped outer frame to the board which helps the longevity of the connection.

I don`t play the frequent cable change out game, chasing that last real or imagined sonic improvement, especially S/PDIF coax, so, even though I primarily use Monster Cables A/V cables since 1988, so haven`t experiences circuit board mounted RCA jack failures/destruction in any of my multiple pieces of A/V electronics, with all their inter connections.

Lucky, I guess !
 
I have tried both coax and optical out of a CD player (Yamaha CD-S301) to a DAC (Schiit Modius and Cambridge DACMagic).

Switching the DAC back and forth I could not tell the difference.

I think you just hear the analog section of the DAC.
 
Bill Ferris said:
Well then, one has to not choose a overly expensive esoteric 75 ohm coax with a unnecessarily fat diameter RCA connector shell. if intending to use that DAC`s S/PDIF coax recessed RCA input.
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It would be interesting to know what their experience is. How would anyone know if they have the right cable and can just start listening when it arrives?

As far as slim profile parts on the shelf, I've measured the Rean. The contact has a step up to 11mm at the threads and the shell has a taper starting at 11.4mm at the the threads. It's not a destructive contact on some old Heathkit tube gear or any other gear. I've included the Neutrik Profi as it's a better connector with a slightly larger shell.
Neutrik_rca.png
 
I made a 45cm one (unshilded) using a twisted pair of Duelund Silver wire and low mass plugs and it sounded great, way better than the store bought digital RCA cables.IMG_20230303_205114_420.jpg

Also one using Gold Plated Copper wire, but I preferred the Silver one.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if that works just fine. I was reading recently where there was a tight budget to do an entire theater for AES/EBU. They used the cheapest Ethernet cable they could find and it worked.

I'm most familiar with the Mogami catalog, so I would probably do the 2964.
 
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