Good quality low cost optical S/PDIF cable

[steve_1979]

Does anyone know of a good quality low cost optical S/PDIF cable. It will be used for connecting a PC to an AV receiver for listening to music?

 

[lazar1980]

I`m using 6m Thatcable and it does job perfectly. It ceraintly is low cost but you will have to judge quality!

Audition audition audition

 

[Anonymous]

Being a phyisicist, it is a bit mysterious for me how the quality of these SPDIF cables can matter at all but I accept the fact, anyway...

I am in a similar situation, need to make a few digital sound connections. There is a short one (same shelf) between my ASUS O!Play and a DacMagic, the other is a 12m one between my desktop computer and the DacMagic.

The prices of such cables are unbelievable and I could not find any in shops that are longer than 5m. I found a very cheap coaxial audio 5m one for something like 30CHF, but I would need three of these plus connectors which is still crazy. Another 1m one I found is sold for like 70CHF. I have zero experience, would like to lean towards the real cheap one but I just spent 4000CHF on my Hi-Fi upgrade and of course I don't want to ruin it with something low-grade.

If anybody has experience with making long digital audio connection, I'd be happy to hear any opinion. Especially, I am thinking I could surely just make (DIY) the cable out of the cable and two connectors ... or can I? Do you guys do it?

Thanks in advance

Tamas

 

[Anonymous]

lazar1980:

I`m using 6m Thatcable and it does job perfectly. It ceraintly is low cost but you will have to judge quality!

Audition audition audition

+1 on the Thatcable suggestion...perfectly acceptable in your system I would have thought...

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good. If only I knew of a single shop in Switzerland which sold cable cheaper than solid gold. If anybody from Switzerland (oh, especially Geneva) hears this plea, let me know where they are hidden ... if I don't hear anything, I'll just get it shipped from the UK.

thanks for the pointer !!

Tamas

 

[Anonymous]

Have a look at CPC link below,

PRO SIGNAL - PSG00938 - LEAD, TOS - TOS, GOLD 5M £4.64 with VAT

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg00938/lead-tos-tos-gold-5m/dp/AV1462503?Ntt=av1462503

Prices dont include VAT but the price with VAT is shown and there is a delivery charge under £45 but hey once there you will no doubt be like a kid in a sweety shop as its a case of what they dont sell rather than what they do sell! Cables a plenty at cheap as chips prices

 

[AudioPlaya]

Personally always go for Profigold cables when it has to be cheap.

check out the PGD565 - 5m toslink retails at £20 to £25

 

[Anonymous]

farkasehes:
Sounds good. If only I knew of a single shop in Switzerland which sold cable cheaper than solid gold. If anybody from Switzerland (oh, especially Geneva) hears this plea, let me know where they are hidden ... if I don't hear anything, I'll just get it shipped from the UK.

thanks for the pointer !!

Tamas
I buy cables from Amazon.de at about the 6? mark but you might be better off trying amazon.fr.

 

[steve_1979]

I bought a QED one for £8 in the end which has had a slight improvement in sound quality over the cheap one I bought of ebay for about £1.50.

www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/6251

 

[aliEnRIK]

farkasehes:
Being a phyisicist, it is a bit mysterious for me how the quality of these SPDIF cables can matter at all but I accept the fact, anyway...

Poor cheap toslinks tend to have high jitter rates

 

[steve_1979]

I seems to me (with limited hifi knowledge) that the big things like speakers and amplifiers make a big difference to the sound that is noticable straight away. With smaller things like the interconnects, speaker cables and mains conditioners they only make small improvements which by themselves could easily be missed. But when you put all of these small improvements together you get a worthwhile improvement in sound quality without having to spend a fortune.

 

[Anonymous]

steve_1979:I seems to me (with limited hifi knowledge) that the big things like speakers and amplifiers make a big difference to the sound that is noticable straight away. With smaller things like the interconnects, speaker cables and mains conditioners they only make small improvements which by themselves could easily be missed. But when you put all of these small improvements together you get a worthwhile improvement in sound quality without having to spend a fortune.I've spent a lot on speaker cables and interconnects, and have found that any changes are so minute that one day you hear them, one day you aren't convinced, so I'm inclined to disagree. I'd never spend the £400 or so I have on cables again, I'd have been far better off with a new CD player!

 

[idc]

Googling SPDIF optical cable tests and all I can find is that with the common 75 ohm cable there should be no issues up to 10 meters.

 

[Dave_]

idc:Googling SPDIF optical cable tests and all I can find is that with the common 75 ohm cable there should be no issues up to 10 meters.

Eh? 75O cable would be electrical/coaxial cable, not optical!