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In article ,
(Colin) writes:

Optical is more likely to faithfully reproduce the input data stream
than is coax, but neither is at all likely to fail as implemented in
today's equipment.

I think, if you took a Toslink of a given length and a coax of identical
length, and looked at an eye pattern of the datastream you would indeed see a
difference. And, as you extend the length, these differences would become more
pronounced.

900 micron plastic fiber is huge by fiber standards. Common multimode fiber is
50 or 62.5 microns, single mode 8 microns. And the light source is visible
light in toslink, not the short wavlengths of glass fiber. After only a few
feet, optical signals in toslink are bouncing all around.

Anybody have a lab to test these? I would be glad to send a piece of coax (we
don't make toslink fiber or I would send that too).

Steve Lampen
Belden Electronics Division