Optical/Toslink VS RCA how big a diff?

When I a/b'd a glass (not plastic) toslink against my Stereovox HDVX (with an Assemblage Platinum 2.7 dac,) I didn't think there was much of a difference. When I was really listening for anything perceptible, the Stereovox seemed a smidgen warmer and more open, but I wouldn't want to bet money on a double blind test. The combo of Cambridge 640cd for transport and Assemblage dac was pretty revealing, but not the equal of the the Marantz Sa11S1 I'm using now. I can't say if a more resolving dac/transport combo would reveal a greater difference. In previous discussions of this topic, a lot a listeners felt that glass toslinks performed quite well as I recall.

Toslink/Optical is a digital transmission medium. It transmits a digital bitstream that is decoded by the processor/receiver. RCA is an analog signal.

Do you use your current setup for 2-channel playback of TV sound or multi-channel? If your current setup is two channel, you may not notice much difference.

TIC

You need to spend a lot more on a coax cable to equal the performance of an optical cable but... I found the sound to be smoother and warmer (less digital) with a coax than with an optical cable. Go figure, digital is digital, right? but it all depends on your system

Uh, guys, he said the unit does not have a coax input either. It's a 2-channel analog pre-amp, so it doesn't have any on-board processing of digital signals, i.e., no optical or coaxial digital connection.

He's asking if he will hear a difference between what he's experiencing today using an optical connection to a receiver vs. what he may experience with his future system using an analog stereo connection to his pre-amp/amp seperates.

TIC