Digital Audio Cables: Wire or Optical


I am trying to connect my CD/DVD player to my processor. My basic question is: Should I use the RCA digital wire interconnect or an optical cable for the audio? What is truly the difference? What is everyone experiences and/or suggestions?

Thanks
teckersley

Showing 2 responses by hearhere

Genesis168 wrote: "Problem exist on the receiving end of the DAC whre the optical receiver cannot cope with the bandwith and speed of the optical transmitter on the transport end causing a time delay in converting the optical signal to electrical."

Are you saying that the optical transmitter in a Toslink-based audio system is sending data too fast ("bandwidth and speed") for the receiver to process correctly? If so, do you have anything which supports this explanation?
Genesis -

The bandwidth of Toslink is at least 6Mbits/sec, assuming that you have your transport and DAC within shouting distance of each other. Note that as Jcbtubes said, plastic fiber links (including Toslink) can run much faster. The datastream for CD runs under 1.5Mbits/sec.

If you prefer coax to Toslink, no problem. If you're looking for a technical reason that would make coax superior in audio applications, bandwidth isn't it.