Digital Coaxial vs Optical Audio?

Little Laurence

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I have a TV and V+ HD box. Both of them only have 'Optical Audio out'.

And on my surround system I am looking into buying, it has 'Optical Audio in' and 'Digital Coaxial in'.

I have heard that both Optical Audio and Digital Coaxial produce real 5.1, but that Digital Coaxial is better in quality. Is this true?

It is implied on the Dolby website, too, where they state Digital Coaxial as quality "Highest" and Optical Audio as quality "Higher".

I obviously want the best for my setup.

Please tell me what the real difference between Optical and Coaxial is, and whether or not there is a quality difference. I know that optical turns it into light and coaxial doesn't, but other than that I know little about these two. Is there a quality difference?

Thanks.

Laurence
 
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No difference. I prefer using digi-coax when I get the option of both simply as it's a more robust connection.
 
No difference. I prefer using digi-coax when I get the option of both simply as it's a more robust connection.

Thank you. I've bought everything now! :smashin:

Wonder why Dolby said that coaxial had better audio. Maybe I misread it. Oh well, thanks for the help.

And turns out the BluRay has coaxial after all, so I will use optical for V+ HD and coaxial for BluRay. That makes things nice and simple for me as well :clap:
 
No difference. I prefer using digi-coax when I get the option of both simply as it's a more robust connection.

I'll second tht.
 
I use coaxial for the blu ray & optical for Sky HD; I went in to our local AV shop a few months ago to get a coaxial lead, and the pillock in the shop asked me if I was sure that it was a blu ray player that I had and not just a DVD because blu ray players 'only use optical because they are digital':eek:

Its good to know we can get correct info from the people who sell the stuff isn't it:rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the advice.

By the way, I had never considered using HDMI before, but I suddenly realize that my system has the right inputs and outputs for it to work.

Am I correct in thinking that HDMI is even better than optical / coaxial? Should I use that rather than those?

Thanks in advance
 
HDMI offers multi-channel LPCM ideal for Blu-Rays. But for DVD's and regular DTS & DD I've read legacy optical/coaxial is superior (on paper)
 
Note, not all HDMI equipped audio devices can process audio. Some simply switch/passthrough. What amp/receiver/home cinema do you have? Look for the ability to process 5.1/7.1 LPCM or decoding of the latest HD audio formats.
 
I find it hard to believe people who say there is no difference between optical and Coaxial.

I had my computer hooked up to my Onkyo via TOSlink and the maximum quality I could select was 24bit 48khz stereo. Anything higher and there would be no sound whatsoever.

However I then bought a Coaxial lead instead and I can now go to 24bit 192khz stereo.

As far as I am aware and have read, Coaxial can support higher bandwidths.
 

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