[drphoto]

I'm posting this in the newbie area, because this this optical cable thing is new to me.

I'm not into the home theater thing, but I do enjoy occasionally watching a concert DVD and running the sound through my 2 channel rig. I have a cheap Samsung DVD. When I hooked up the audio out, the sound was kind of bright and thin, pretty much what you'd expect from a cheap built in DAC and output stage. Plus I was getting a buzz, probably from the cable TV bleeding through.

Well, I have the terrific for the money Stan Warren modded Aiwa XC-35 changer/MSB DAC as my digital source. As those of you who might remember from when this was a hot setup a few years ago, Stan uses an optical connection from the changer to the DAC. His has a proprietary cable w/ what looks like a miniphono plug on the changer end, but std. optical on the DAC. So I went out and got a cheap optical from Rat Shack to run from the DVD to the DAC. Huge improvement. Noise gone. Much more fleshed out sound.

So I got to thinking, why not do the same from my stock SB3? I've been running an ordinary IC from the coax output, and considered trying a true digital cable. But since Stan optimized the MSB for an optical input, it seems like that's the way to go.

So after a long winded intro, what's a good quality cable? I understand I want glass, not plastic.

thanks

[Photon46]

On the advice of several people, I tried an inexpensive glass toslink I bought on Ebay for about $35.00. Can't recall the name, the cable just has "Glass Optical Fiber" written on it. Anyway, it sounds fine & I can't hear any difference between it & a Stereovox BNC cable I have. I have wanted to try what Galen Carol says is the best he's heard, the Wireworld Supernova for $109.00.

[F-100]

On the advice of several people, I tried an inexpensive glass toslink I bought on Ebay for about $35.00. Can't recall the name, the cable just has "Glass Optical Fiber" written on it.

Ditto on this recommendation.

[lonewolfny42]

On the advice of several people, I tried an inexpensive glass toslink I bought on Ebay for about $35.00. Can't recall the name, the cable just has "Glass Optical Fiber" written on it.

Ditto on this recommendation.

Don't leave us "hanging"....where's the link ? Thanks....

[Occam]

The glass tolslink cable I've recommended is from uniqueproductsonline.com. Available on Ebay -
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Unique-Products-Online_GLASS-Toslink-Cables_W0QQ_fsubZ13QQ_sidZ110621008QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

or from their own site -
http://www.uniqueproductsonline.com/gltodiopca.html

These glass toslinks work wonderfully on the unmodified SB feeding a dac without galvanic isolation (an input transformer) to eliminate noise. If you mod the SB to eliminate the chip inductors on it, mucking up the spdif, and/or use a transformer on either the SB or the DAC, a coaxial cable of the Sterovox caliber can provide superior performance, IMO.

FWIW,
Paul

[ArthurDent]

No expert here on plastic vs glass, however, am using a toslink on my old Sony CDP to switcher to coax to DAC, from Blue Jeans. Sounds sweet, no comparison to the Sony's internal unit. Nice folks, make good solid stuff, great service, and provide their reasoning for plastic over glass here  http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm. They make them to order length-wise. fwiw

[bacobits1]

I have that exact glass cable 3'. If interested PM me. $15+postage.
I do not use a DAC now. It worked very well when I was using a Benchmark DAC1

Den