Beresford Toslink Cable

[Quarknosis]

I had been planning to buy the Beresford optical cable but as a result of this thread, bought the Profigold OXYA5601 which I'm listening to now. While it doesn't seem as open and vibrant as my Mark Grant coax, it is certainly better than no name budget optical cable that I had before.

I've had a Profigold Oxypure coax cable in the past and didn't really like how it sounded.

[Fretless]

I doubt if any Toslink connection can equal a coax. There is the extra 'work' involved in converting an electrical data signal into laser pulses and back again at the other end, a coax link just takes the electrons from one end to the other. So the main hope with an optical connection is that it doesn't sound too flat and lifeless.

I found the Beresford to be a definite step up from a 'standard' Toslink and the Profigold, to my ears, gets remarkably close to the sound of a coax connection. In this case, at the moment, the Beresford coax.

The OXYA5601 is just lacking a little bit of sparkle and richness - but it's close and very musical.

Edit: Some modern DAC's, like the Chord, buffer the incoming SPDIF signal for up to 4 seconds in order to 'correct' the data and ensure that it is properly sysnchronised before converting it into an analogue music output. This ought to reduce the differences in cable quality and format (coax/optical).

[George Hincapie]

I doubt if any Toslink connection can equal a coax. There is the extra 'work' involved in converting an electrical data signal into laser pulses and back again at the other end, a coax link just takes the electrons from one end to the other. So the main hope with an optical connection is that it doesn't sound too flat and lifeless.

It is easy to demonstrate. Simply connect cables for both types between your CD player/transport and DAC, set a disc going and input switch. There's no doubt in my mind that Coax is better.

[_D_S_J_R_]

Depends on what electrical sh*t is flying round the player chassis. In the past, PC's should be used with optical connectors to prevent electrical pollution. This may have changed now...

[kimangelis]

With all due respect to all and investigation... What are you doing?

Optical can't and doesn't compete with co-ax. So why bother?

Discuss.....

[Fretless]

Being forced to use a toslink input on my DAC means I want to get a reasonable performance from the source on that connection. Hence my interest in finding the most musical optical cable that I can use.

[George Hincapie]

Being forced to use a toslink input on my DAC means I want to get a reasonable performance from the source on that connection. Hence my interest in finding the most musical optical cable that I can use.

I only have one SPDIF on my Caiman and one Optical. I'd rather just have two SPDIF or perhaps three. I may send Stan an e-mail.

[George Hincapie]

Incidentally Fretless, I have a Cambridge Audio optical cable that I am not using. Happy to mail it over for you if you want to PM your address.

[BillyBones]

Being forced to use a toslink input on my DAC means I want to get a reasonable performance from the source on that connection. Hence my interest in finding the most musical optical cable that I can use.

I only have one SPDIF on my Caiman and one Optical. I'd rather just have two SPDIF or perhaps three. I may send Stan an e-mail.

George, I'm sure there are two Optical and one Coax inputs on the Caiman MkII. There are on mine!

[George Hincapie]

There are Billy - two TOSLink and one SPDIF. I prefer SPDIF (Coax) so would rather have at least two of those.