Digital Audio Interconnects - The Basics?

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Nihilanth99

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Perhaps more a general audio topic than a computer audio topic, what are the advantages/disadvantages of the different types of digital interconnects? Coaxial, optical, HDMI? For instance, given the choice between coaxial and optical, which would be the better choice?

:confused:

Thanks.
 
Optical. It's not affected by electrical interference. HDMI is new and is not really the same thing as coaxial and Optical interconnects. OF course it is all just a preference as alot of people will tell you there is abolutley no difference is sound quality between coax and optical.;)
 
Some hard core guys will say go with digital coax instead of optical since all the signals in the receiver are electrical. Lots of receivers use a really cheap digital coax to optical converter. For me, just use whatever is convenient. In general, good thick and well shielded coax should be pretty immune to electrical interference and noise problems. Usually the noise is caused by one of the devices not working right or using those free cheap coax interconnects in a RF noise environment.

HDMI is just a different type of plug that has both video and audio signals in one plug. It uses the computer DVI signaling specifications and adds the HD content protections (HDCP) because the giant media companies want to prevent piracy. You can get converter plugs for DVI to HDMI and vice versa. Depending upon which way you are sending the signal, you could lose sound because DVI does not mess with sound.
 
Over short distances, it doesn't really matter. There's lots of arguments about jitter and such, but nothing I've ever seen substantiated by any empirical data. Over longer runs, say 20 feet or more, you probably want to go coax. Consumer optical cable is plastic, which is cheap and flexible, but rather lossy. The attenuation is enough that over longer runs it can be problematic. Good quality coax should work for any distance you'll find in a home though.

Also you'll want to consider coax if the cable is run somewhere that ti is likely to get messed with. A good coax cable can take a lot of abuse, an optical cable is much easier to break.

For normal uses though, it doesn't really matter.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I had it in my mind that either optical or coaxial had to be noticably superior to the other, guess I was mistaken!
 
IXOS makes glass toslinks at a decent price. having both glass tolink and IXOS braided coax going into my reciver (HTPC, 360 tos and DVR coax) they have no difference in sound. mine are short runs, under ten feet so i cant compare longer runs. in the end its the same signal standard just different delivery.

oop sorry forgot about the cheap translators... i have an AVR-686s and have no change in the sound. any cheaper then my reciver mite have trouble.
 
good call... having bought Canare brand cable from bluejeans i have read those before but the last one was great.
 
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