QuestionQUESTION: I just upgraded to a Pioneer Elite 01TXH receiver from my old (analog) VSX-97, and decided to try a digital optical cable connection from my CD player (a Sony 5-disc changer, ES-series; I don't recall the actual model number). The CD player has an optical out but no digital coaxial out. I dropped $120 on an Optilink-3 cable (I was horrified at the price but paid it anyway), mostly because I thought I would get better performance than with the (analog) RCA connectors and I heard that there is a difference in optical cables. I have 2 questions: First, is the Optilink worth the extra money versus a $20 consumer-brand cable? Second, is there enough digital information on CDs to justify switching to optical cabling in the first place?
ANSWER: As far as the price - I know how much optical cable costs from the factory, and $120 is daylight robbery. Check www.bluejeanscable.com
As far as the sonic differences, it's hard to say. A lot will depend on the quality of the Digital to Analog conversion in the receiver. As an engineer, I've heard subtle differences to none at all, depending on the system and listening environment. Some prefer the L & R RCA interconnects, some swear by digital. I say it's a subjective experience and a preference that only you can decide.
I can see why you're asking about justification to switch because you paid about 100 dollars more than you needed to. With digital audio - you either get it all, or you get nothing, don't let anyone tell you differently. It doesn't matter if it's optical or coaxial or a coat hanger - it's a digital bit stream traveling through it, and if it reaches the decoder, it gets "reassembled" as an analog waveform and is fed to the amp. Any sonic problems will not be subtle differences in lows or highs, they will be horrible sounding digital errors.
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QUESTION: Thanks for your prompt reply.
So, if I understand you correctly: 1...there is really no reason to spend more on a "better" optical cable (you may not be surprised to know that the salesperson alleged that there is a difference -- less digital information loss with the better cables); and 2...I might as well stick with the RCA coaxial cabling I have now between the CD player and the receiver.
With regard to (2), my thinking was that the CD is encoded digitally, so perhaps digital transmission would be advantageous because the decoding occurs in the receiver rather than in the CD player. To transmit on RCA coax (analog connection) the signal has to go through an A-D converter in the CD player, right? Since the signal passes to the receiver in analog form, there could be degradation due to the various plug-in connections and line losses in the cabling. The receiver then amplifies and processes whatever analog signal it receives, and sends it to the speakers. My thought was that it may be preferable to bypass the A-D converter in the CD player, so that the receiver sees pure digital data, then uses its A-D converter (which is probably a higher quality converter than the one in the CD player) to process the signal. Do you think this is valid? If so, it is only valid if the accuracy of the digital signal reaching the receiver is very high, hence my question about the quality of the cabling.
Is there any information on CDs that is only available digitally (like DTS encoding on DVDs)? I didn't think so but thought I should ask, because that might be a reason to switch to optical cabling.
AnswerThe D/A conversion is normally just fine on most players - the sonic differences come from what the receiver/amp does with the signal AFTER it's back to analog. Over short runs of digital cable, as long as the cable is structurally sound, signal accuracy/integrity is never an issue. Like I mentioned before, you can use a steel coat hanger with RCAs soldered onto it and get a perfect transmission (yes, we tried this once!). The cable quality in the digital realm is normally the least of your concerns.
Try them both and see what you prefer.
As far as other info on cd's - typically no, but there may be exceptions depending on the particular disc. Usually the things I see are accessible only with a computer (video data, "enhanced" cd features, etc...) It's normally printed on the disc or packaging if anything else is available. I've never seen any surround info on standard CDs.
