[joe h]

Hello,

I bought a toslink cable. It's six feet in length, and is "plastic" as
far as I can tell. I was doing some reading, and it appears that the
"glass" ones are supposed to be better. They kept talking about
attenuation and jitter. Then, of course, there is the inevitable
contrarian comment that the glass ones sound "brittle" and that
plastic ones are better.

My experience with spdif is that as long as the wire length is short
and the cable is new and in good condition, I couldn't really tell any
difference between the fancy spdif cable and a simple RCA cable. It
appears that toslink is sort of like spdif, so I'm guessing a basic
$12 toslink cable like the one I bought should be fine.

I have a microphone on order (last piece of the signal chain), so I
haven't tested the toslink yet. I don't mind buying a fancier toslink
cable (I didn't know such a thing existed). But if it is sort of just
in voodoo land, I'll rig things up with the $12 cable I got and not
worry about it too much. If it really does make a big deal, I can get
one of the $50 ones express shipped.

I had no idea how this toslink stuff works, but apparently it shines
led light beams in some sort of strobe pattern to produce the ones and
zeroes. Pretty wild!

[Scott Dorsey]

joe h wrote:
I bought a toslink cable. It's six feet in length, and is "plastic" as
far as I can tell. I was doing some reading, and it appears that the
"glass" ones are supposed to be better. They kept talking about
attenuation and jitter. Then, of course, there is the inevitable
contrarian comment that the glass ones sound "brittle" and that
plastic ones are better.

The plastic ones meet the TOSLINK specification.

Anything else does not.

My experience with spdif is that as long as the wire length is short
and the cable is new and in good condition, I couldn't really tell any
difference between the fancy spdif cable and a simple RCA cable. It
appears that toslink is sort of like spdif, so I'm guessing a basic
$12 toslink cable like the one I bought should be fine.

That's how it's supposed to work. Either there are errors, or there are
not errors.

TOSLINK is designed to be as cheap as possible, so it is designed to work
with thick plastic cable. If you need to make long runs, it is possible
to use glass fibre with ST connectors and some electronic interface boxes
that convert the TOSLINK signal to the proper signal intended for glass
fibre.

I have a microphone on order (last piece of the signal chain), so I
haven't tested the toslink yet. I don't mind buying a fancier toslink
cable (I didn't know such a thing existed). But if it is sort of just
in voodoo land, I'll rig things up with the $12 cable I got and not
worry about it too much. If it really does make a big deal, I can get
one of the $50 ones express shipped.

Get a bitscope application and watch for bad data. It will be fine as
long as you keep the cable lengths short.

Remember the whole TOSLINK thing is intended to keep manufacturing costs
down over S-PDIF coaxial interfaces.

I had no idea how this toslink stuff works, but apparently it shines
led light beams in some sort of strobe pattern to produce the ones and
zeroes. Pretty wild!

Basically, it's an LED connected to an S-PDIF interface. Makes it easier
to meet FCC emissions specs. Cheaper than a transformer.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Arny Krueger[_4_]]

"joe h" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I bought a toslink cable. It's six feet in length, and is "plastic" as
far as I can tell.

Probably the standard product, which is highly effective in the lengths
typically used, such as your 6 foot application.

I was doing some reading, and it appears that the
"glass" ones are supposed to be better.

I think that might be true in some sense. However, there is a question here
of effectiveness. If something is highly effective and has good margins of
safety and stability, then in some sense there is *nothing* better. For
example consider a mic cable. If we made mic cables out of 12 gauge wire,
they would be *better* in the sense that they would have less resistance,
and lower loss over most of the audio band. Obviously 12 gauge mic cables
are ludicrous. So is *improving* something that is highly effective and has
good margins of safety and stability,

They kept talking about attenuation and jitter.

The attenuation of plastic Toslink cables is real, which is why the standard
product is never more than about 30 feet long. The jitter issue is hype,
because that is what jitter *(which is a real issue within logical bounds)
has become in audio. There is another real world issue which does not get a
lot of play, and that is the fragile, sloppy nature of the terminations of
toslink cabes. Ever wonder why you see so little about it? However, be the
termination of toslink as bad as it is, it is still generally effective as
used, and there are workable circumventions.

Then, of course, there is the inevitable
contrarian comment that the glass ones sound "brittle" and that
plastic ones are better.

Utter BS.

My experience with spdif is that as long as the wire length is short
and the cable is new and in good condition, I couldn't really tell any
difference between the fancy spdif cable and a simple RCA cable.

My experience with SPDIF is that its biggest practical fault is that it
creates yet another metallic conductive path between pieces of equipment and
can create ground loops. I've used it in long lengths and short lengths and
it just works. Its second most serious problem is that it is based on RCA
connectors and we all know they are inherently junk.

It appears that toslink is sort of like spdif, so I'm guessing a basic
$12 toslink cable like the one I bought should be fine.

Yes. I have 8 pieces of SPDIF in the biggest system I use routinely - they
connect the Yamaha console to the Berhinger analog converters. They've been
in service for about 6 years and operate flawlessly. However, this is not a
touring system. If it were a touring system, the fragility issue would be on
my mind, but it is addressable.

I have a microphone on order (last piece of the signal chain), so I
haven't tested the toslink yet. I don't mind buying a fancier toslink
cable (I didn't know such a thing existed). But if it is sort of just
in voodoo land, I'll rig things up with the $12 cable I got and not
worry about it too much. If it really does make a big deal, I can get
one of the $50 ones express shipped.

Save your money!

I had no idea how this toslink stuff works, but apparently it shines
led light beams in some sort of strobe pattern to produce the ones and
zeroes. Pretty wild!

Actually, its very old technology at this point and is far from rocket
science. Done right it just works, and right doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

[joe h]

Thanks guys, that's amazing insight into Toslink.

The Toslink cable I got is 6 feet and brand new, so after reading what
you wrote it looks like I have nothing to worry about with its specs.

I'm excited to piece this all together!