£50 hdmi cable or £50 optical digital cable for sound

[j4mm3r]

Hi, i have apple tv connected to my avr with a cheap hdmi cable and im looking to upgrade. i am mainly using it for music at the moment, so i cant decide if i'd get better music quality if i spent £50 on a hdmi cable or £50 on an optical cable? thought being the technology in the optical is £50 all pumped into the sound whereas the hdmi is a combination of sound picture therefore half the quality? am i wide of the mark here?

looking at the chord optical or the chord supershield hdmi both about same price.

 

[a91gti]

Given what's involved in producing both cables (I used to work for a fibre optics firm) I'd go for the HDMI one. At that price point any difference is going to be negligible.

 

[Craig M.]

i've never bothered trying to see if i can tell any difference between hdmi cables. but i have tried the chord opticord and really couldn't tell any difference whatsoever between it and the 10 pound no-name jobbies i use between my skybox/mac and dac.