OK, no science. I bought a digital coax to replace my optical (needed a optical for new cd player). I left both of them hooked up from DVD to reciever and ran a few sceens/songs across both. I thought the coax sounded better. Then, thinking it was in my head, I got my "I hate your electronic crap" wife to listen to both but didn't tell her why. She thought the coax sounded much fuller and had more bass. I told a few friends and they changed to coax and noticed a change.

Again, no science, it is just better now.

Rob

OK, so where does one get a coaxial cable for the DVD hookup? Do you just make your own out of RG6 and use F-to-RCA adapters? Seems like that's too many connections.

Got mine from a local retailer, but it's Monster cable made for this with RCA ends, I'm sure one could find it on the web. It's pretty thick with a lot of shielding.

Rob

I agree, the more expensive the better, but never the less, for the average joe, if you think you have too many wires running and are afraid of inteferance, go with Optical for your DVD, if you think your system is fine, go with Coax, I am running both, one DVD player with Coax and one with Optical, I cant hear a differance through my setup (Amp: Yamaha HTR 5590).

I realize this thread is very old, but....
Does anyone know whether optical cable truncates a 96kHz signal to 44.1 kHz? I thought I read that somewhere. There are a few CD's out there that have been encoded in 96/24bit, if optical truncates the signal to 44.1/24, then I need to know.

I wish more component manufacturers would add AES/EBU inputs to their products. That way debates like this could add a third dimension.

Can an audio receivers Coaxial Digital connection cause ground loops when used in conjunction with video equipment?

With a properly designed receiver and source components, it should not be an issue. Usually the main culprit for ground loops is your cable TV connection.

Larry sez
"OK, so where does one get a coaxial cable for the DVD hookup? Do you just make your own out of RG6 and use F-to-RCA adapters? Seems like that's too many connections."

There are video cables made with RCA connectors on each end. These will work fine for digital.

Enoch sez
"Does anyone know whether optical cable truncates a 96kHz signal to 44.1 kHz? I thought I read that somewhere. There are a few CD's out there that have been encoded in 96/24bit, if optical truncates the signal to 44.1/24, then I need to know."

How could it possibly do that? How would the optical medium know just which bits (and even which PARTS of bits) needed to be let through? Note that 96 is not twice 44.1, so it's not even like the fiber could somehow magically chop out half the bits! That is the most ridiculous idea I ever heard, and I congratulate you for quoting it, not thinking of it yourself!


G50AE sez
"I wish more component manufacturers would add AES/EBU inputs to their products. That way debates like this could add a third dimension."

Yeah, but heck, doesn't this have enough dimensions already?


MErichard sez
"Can an audio receivers Coaxial Digital connection cause ground loops when used in conjunction with video equipment?"

I was actually waiting (well, wading, really) all through this discussion for someone to bring that up. That is the ONE possibly valid point that I have ever heard favoring optical over coax.


G50AE sez
"With a properly designed receiver and source components, it should not be an issue. Usually the main culprit for ground loops is your cable TV connection."

You're absolutely right about this. As I said, that issue could possibly be valid. And you actually can have ground loops among your equipment connections. But these will not cause problems, particularly when compared to a cable TV ground problem!


And, yeah, Daniel's claim of expertise went straight down the drain with me when he claimed that light will come out of a diamond in a dark room. Now THAT would be a time domain problem!


By the way, a few years ago I ran across a Toshiba 5.1 demo disc with some two-channe tracks on it, and one track actually had no output from the digital out! I don't remember whether it was coax or optical, but I have always connected peoples' systems with analog as well as digital audio.

Anybody ever hear of that one before?

When hooking up a CD player there is another reason why hooking up both digital and analog outputs to the receiver or pre-amp may be nessesary. Assuming your CD player has an HDCD decoder, but your receiver does not, as most do not, you need to use the analog outputs to take advantage of HDCD encoded disces. However, to take advantage of DTS CD's, you need to use the digital output and your receiver or pre-amp must be able to decode DTS, as most can these days.

One source component, two different hook-ups. If you want to get even more complicated we can discus laserdisc players.

Well.... wait a minute. The first place my CATV feed runs is into my set top satellite box, after that it goes to the tv. Since the set top box is the first source of ground and connects directly to the audio reciever, would'nt this be the best possible place to link with optical?

In theory I think caox may have the edge. What about in the real world?

From what I gather your house has possibly 4 grounding points,
1- The electrical service
2- Where the cable enters the house
3- The Satelite dish antenna installation
4- Telco interface point

Idealy you should look to take steps to make all of these points as close to equipotential as possible.

Yes, that looks about right. But I live in Florida, (we float on saltwater) and re-grounding the house if possible is not an alternative for most installers.

Ground loops happen, and probably exist in most systems at least to some degree. Some may be measureable and inaudible, others affecting video quality and not audio.

Since this potential exists, wouldn't the best connection from video to audio componentry be almost always be optical?

After reading this thread the consensus seems to be coaxial is better. In this case I would think optical would almost always rule.

Rich

Having an extra dimension prevents the discusion from becoming flat.

So does a good bra.