Newsgroups: rec.audio.tech,rec.audio.opinion
Subject: Re: Sound quality of digital coaxial vs. optical
References:  
Laurence Payne  writes:

> On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:15:30 GMT, Paul L  wrote:
> 
> >My DVD player and my digital reciever have both coaxial and optical 
> >jacks. Which connection should I use to get better sound quality or are 
> >they all equal?
> 
> The optical signal has to be converted from/to an electrical signal.
> So theoretically I suppose the coax connection might be cleaner.  

That's one theory. 

Other thing to consider with coax connection is that the coaxial 
connection can more easily be interfered by electrical signal 
and carry noise to your equipment... 

In very ideal system coax might be threoretically sliglty better. 
In real-life situations it is pretty impossible to say which one 
of the potential problems of the coax system or the optical 
system cause more problems to the sound... 

>  But there's no practical difference. On domestic gear both systems use
> components costing a few pennies.  Which work fine :-)

You are right on this. 

-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/