Need opinions for optical audio

jon rhoads New member Username: Cgaw Post Number: 1 Registered: Jul-04	Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:10 GMT is optical audio really that much better, and why, what makes it better? i have a sony home theater system but it doesnt have optical inputs, and if its better, id rather get a new one, bout that time anyway
neal m Bronze Member Username: Nealm Post Number: 32 Registered: Jun-04	Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:30 GMT a digital connection is all you need, be it optical/coaxial. there are proponents of each type of digital connection but no significant data that favors either type. if your system has coaxial inputs then you should be fine (although an upgrade to more mid-fi equipment would probably serve you well considering the sony home theater systems are generally regarded as high cost- low satisfaction systems).
Mathew W New member Username: Xvoid Post Number: 3 Registered: Jul-04	Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 15:21 GMT In an ideal world, both optical and digital should be equal but there are cases for and against both. Unlike analog, digital is a description of the original signal and the thing that you are most concerned with is "bit" errors which come from various sources. Imagine taking this post and removing random letters from the page - the more you loose, the less it looks like the original words. So any significant loss of "bits" will result in a complete umistakable break down in the signal, although I doubt this will happen to you unless you do something stupid . Without going into the depths and a superficial level, optical can suffer light distortion and coax can suffer from electromagnetic interference. All of which can cause bit errors which may end up corrupting the signal to some extent. In the majority of situations, these errors go unnoticed or get corrected but I belong to the school of thought that says: use common sense. Just use cables of some reasonable quality and you should be fine no matter what option.
Stone Bronze Member Username: Stone West CoastUSA Post Number: 51 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Friday, July 23, 2004 - 14:56 GMT If you are asking is digital better overall, I think Dolby Digital is nice for movies as the sounds are more distinct and the different channels including the center speaker have thier own seperate sounds as opposed to taking 2 channel info and processing it through Dobly Pro logic II. For music I still prefer analog but I do not have SACD or DVD-Audio. If you are ready to upgrade you might as well. No matter when you do it, there always seems to be something new out within a year anyway.
John A. Gold Member Username: John_a Post Number: 1803 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Saturday, July 24, 2004 - 04:56 GMT Stone, Analogue rules. Until DVD-A; awesome. DVD-A seems to be as good as LP, but with up to 5.1 channels. CD was a marketing plot. As such, it worked. In my opinion, not much is new, apart from high-res digital formats and the surround sound opportunites they finally bring; surround was hyped in the mid 70s but failed partly because of an industry format war; people decided not to risk investing in surround at all. Matthew, I agree. There was a long thread on this topic, with some strongly-held views, and interesting arguments. Here is the link. Coaxial Digital Connection Vs Digital Fiber Optical Connection?
John A. Gold Member Username: John_a Post Number: 1804 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Saturday, July 24, 2004 - 04:59 GMT Stone, Analogue rules. Until DVD-A; awesome. DVD-A seems to be as good as LP, but with up to 5.1 channels. CD was a marketing plot. As such, it worked. In my opinion, not much is new, apart from high-res digital formats and the surround sound opportunites they finally bring; surround was hyped in the mid 70s but failed partly because of an industry format war; people decided not to risk investing in surround at all. Matthew, I agree. There was a long thread on this topic, with some strongly-held views, and interesting arguments. Here is the link. Coaxial Digital Connection Vs Digital Fiber Optical Connection?
John A. Gold Member Username: John_a Post Number: 1807 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Saturday, July 24, 2004 - 06:23 GMT Sorry about that. They are both the same.

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