Optical Cables

chigley -- Tue, 01/26/2010 - 07:44

I have a £13 optical cable connecting CD to external Dac. Have noticed recently cables from 'Wireworld' as much as £400 +. Nordost do their own 'Whitelight ' Version T £80. Does anyone out there noticed any diffenrece in sound quality of optical cables? Cheers - Paul

Robert Harley -- Tue, 01/26/2010 - 10:51

I avoid using TosLink generally, so have not compared different optical cables. Can you borrow a premium TosLink cable from a dealer and compare?

chigley -- Wed, 01/27/2010 - 04:15

thanks both of u for the advice. We dont have any really top class dealers close by anymore so I suppose i may have 2 go the old route of buying and trying. What really amazes me is the current trend of people having V expensive systems and cabling and then streaming compressed music via a cheap usb lead from a laptop - where's the logic??

rich.maltz13@gm... -- Tue, 01/26/2010 - 13:44

It is my understanding that glass typically sounds better in a toslink cable than the plastic that is genearally used in a lower priced cable. I have not heard this difference for myself but I definitely second Roberts point of auditioning. If you can hear a difference then its up to you to decide whether or not its worth the price of the upgrade. Perhaps you'd want to audition a lower priced glass cable and one at the highest price you are willing to pay and compare them to what you have.