Speaker cables/Interconnects

[Protege]

As far as i understand, the quality of the optical cable will not make a very big difference. However, it must not be bend or damage as it will affect light transmission.

[Sarong1]

Optical cable transmits digital audio signals as pulses of light. Because of this, optical cables are almost not affected by EM and RF interference. As with any medium, a good quality optical cable will prevent problems like jitters. Having this properties, it has advantages over conventional interconnects which are prone to interference. That said, many have commented that the effect of optical cables on vocal are pretty obvious but to achieve that, you have to be sure that the cables are well plugged and not bent since the light can't bend. We know that optic cables have much greater bandwidth than metal cables and weigh lesser than copper wire cable but are more fragile than copper wire cable. So, care must be exercised when using optical cables.

[Protege]

Thats very good information bro!

[Hyun]

> good quality optical cable will prevent problems like jitters.

 

I wonder what "jitters" refer to. I don't think it refers to the usual "jitter" when we talk about ADC / DAC because there is no conversion of A or D here. perhaps it's saying that there is some loss or hesitancy in the transmission for a "bad" optical cable? for it to lose information or be hesitant, it must probably be a really bad cable.

 

> That said, many have commented that the effect of optical cables on vocal are pretty obvious

 

this is interesting. although vocals extend up to 8khz or more, the entire vocal band stretches all the way down to below 200hz. for a cable to affect frequencies in this band, it would have to alter longish wavelength signals. still can't picture how this might happen ... would love to be able to A-B-Test.