[tcsubwoofer]

Trying to reach my speakers on one wall from equipment located in a cabinet on another wall.  I'll route cable under the floor to the speakers and the amplifiers will be within a few feet from the speakers, but hidden.  All sound from a HTPC.

I've been planning on running about 25 feet' of balanced XLR from a Benchmark Dac1, Lynx L22 or my chosen DAC to the amplifers across the room.  I could as easily install a long toslink cable from the HTPC under the floor and place the Benchmark DAC1 near the speakers instead.

I've been under the impression that the long XLR is preferred and quite frankly would be the easiest.  Just wanted to throw it out there and see if I get any feedback?

[richidoo]

The benchmark can drive anything, so no problem from that regard. But cable quality might be a concern, long cables that sound great might break the bank, depending on your susceptibility to cable voodoo. Toslink is not a professional media for digital audio so if you go long digital cable use Spdif coax instead of toslink, unless benchmark filters jitter well?? Not sure of their jitter reduction scheme. If your digital transport isn't low jitter then it really doesn't matter anyway. Jitter is less with coax because you stay electrical and eliminate the conversions to and from optical which add jitter. Nice digital coax (RCA) available from Blue Jeans Cable.

[NewBuyer]

Trying to reach my speakers on one wall... I've been planning on running about 25 feet' of balanced XLR... I could as easily install a long toslink cable...

Either of these options (long XLR or long toslink) will work equally well for you.  Choose whichever is most convenient, depending on the DAC you choose and where you want the volume control to be located.  If I had to recommend one or the other, I'd go with the long XLR (check out Blue Jeans Cable for a good supplier)...

[tcsubwoofer]

The benchmark can drive anything, so no problem from that regard. But cable quality might be a concern, long cables that sound great might break the bank, depending on your susceptibility to cable voodoo. Toslink is not a professional media for digital audio so if you go long digital cable use Spdif coax instead of toslink, unless benchmark filters jitter well?? Not sure of their jitter reduction scheme. If your digital transport isn't low jitter then it really doesn't matter anyway. Jitter is less with coax because you stay electrical and eliminate the conversions to and from optical which add jitter. Nice digital coax (RCA) available from Blue Jeans Cable.

Thanks Richidoo and Newbuyer for the feedback.  I'm less worried about long runs now.  I figure recording studios do it fairly often and as long as the cables are balanced I should be OK.  I'll definitely check out Blue Jeans Cable.

[Folsom]

Toslink and Coaxial for digital need to be at least 1.5m in all cirumcumstances or the reflection in the line is too fast and causes problems.

[*Scotty*]

If your are going to use toslink use real glass fiber optic cable. Plastic fiber optic cable exhibits a lot more dispersion which degrades the edge of the pulse which confuses the SPDIF receiver.  The end result of dispersion is much higher levels of jitter.
Bottom line is glass while more expensive has superior transmission characteristics compared to plastic. Here are some links to glass fiber optic cables.
http://www.cablesondemand.com/product/AV-TOSLQGMSMM/URvars/Items/Library/InfoManage/AV-TOSLPROTSW.htm
http://www.uniqueproductsonline.com/gltodiopca.html
I use glass toslink to connect my PC to my Azur 740C when I use the hard drive as a source.
Scotty

[Russell Dawkins]

good tip on the toslink, Scotty - thanks for the links.