Alpine optical cables

[trunks9_us 10+ year member]

thx ill be using this site now never knew hdmi is so cheap **** bestbuy makingme pay 100 bucks for a hdmi-dvi conversion to bad i bought it a while back oh well 100 bucks what a waste.

 

[Igno 10+ year member]

dude you don't need monster I was joking,

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10237&style=

lots of cables here price is good, Binkinpunk is right about parts express

 

[trunks9_us 10+ year member]

whats the difference btw optical toslink and digital coax.? also notice there regual fiber optic cable which is even more then tos link optical cable whats all these differences?

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

whats the difference btw optical toslink and digital coax.? also notice there regual fiber optic cable which is even more then tos link optical cable whats all these differences?

Never really been asked. Google'd and found this:

When correctly connected, Coax and Optical should be exactly the same. Bandwidth isn't and issue, error correction (when connected correctly) isn't and issue. Distance, say over 50 feet might lean toward optical but who does that? Optical cables can be miles long compared to copper's hundreds of feet for the same amount of signal loss. Optical cable can be fragile and cannot be taken around corners too tightly or pinched. For all intents and purposes though, it doesn't make a difference which one you use.

 

Now, having said that, there are a couple of situation where one MIGHT be better than the other. They both fall under "defective equipment" though.

 

1. The CD data, though optical, is converted to a electrical signal. To create an optical signal, this elctrical signal - essentially the coax signal, has to be convered to optical by a laser-diode. You could theorize that am optical signal could not be superior to a coax signal because it is derived from the coax signal. I would not worry about it though.

 

2. Optical connections do not carry grounds. In a pooly designed system an optical connection COULD produce less hum because there are fewer ground paths. The music to the decoder would not be any better but a crappy amp could add hum to an otherwise pristine music signal just before it got to the speakers. This hum would be faily obvious though.

 

Again, if you have good equipment, use either one.

Bolded is the most important portion. The chances of you having "noise" due to bad grounds is nearly cut out with an optical cable.

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

optical uses toslink connections and coax uses rca

optical is light, coax is electrical

light is faster, electricity is slower

doesnt matter what you use it is still better than analog

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

This thread has turned into an optical vs digital thread. I thought the original poster was asking if he could buy a regular opitcal cable from any store? My question to the thread starter is if you're running Alpine equipment then wouldn't you have to buy the cable or cables from Alpine or are the connections on your Alpine equipment S/PDIF?? I know the optical connections on my P9 combo are NOT something you could buy at a electronics store. They're Pioneer specific.

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

optical uses toslink connections and coax uses rca

Not always.

optical is light, coax is electrical

correct

light is faster, electricity is slower

Slower than light yes, but by no means is it slow. Not enough to make much of an audible difference.

doesnt matter what you use it is still better than analog

That isn't necessarily true. In fact, there are people that swear by analog and would fight you tooth and nail on this subject.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

http://www.knukonceptz.com

Grab your optical cable from them.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

nG

 

[whitemax 10+ year member]

On my older Alpine system I used some Monster fiberoptic cables that I picked up at Circuit City. I used these cables for both the HU to processor connection, as well as the CD changer to processor connection. On my particular HU, the digital conneciton was going in from the side, so I had to take off the outer casing to the cable (just a small plasctic tube thing). Without the covering in looked like the Alpine cable.

 

[Igno 10+ year member]

This thread has turned into an optical vs digital thread. I thought the original poster was asking if he could buy a regular opitcal cable from any store? My question to the thread starter is if you're running Alpine equipment then wouldn't you have to buy the cable or cables from Alpine or are the connections on your Alpine equipment S/PDIF?? I know the optical connections on my P9 combo are NOT something you could buy at a electronics store. They're Pioneer specific.

they are both digital, 1 and 0

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Indeed, digital coax is the electrical equivalent of optical.

It's the same signal representation, except one uses electricity (high/low voltage) and the other uses light (presence/absence).

nG

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

they are both digital, 1 and 0

What are you talking about.?? I know digital information is binary but I was asking if Alpine used standard connections or Alpine specific. Now I know they use standard. I wish Pioneer used the same standard. Instead you have to use the stupid Pioneer connections. Oh well, as long as I never need to make a replacement of cables it should be fine.

 

[SQChevy 10+ year member]

If you don't mind me asking why are you using the Alpine PXA-H701 and the Zapco DSP6?

 

[trunks9_us 10+ year member]

well i am not now but i didnt know if the alpine 701 had more options than the dsp 6 but robert said just use the dsp 6 so i might just the alpine iva-d105

If you don't mind me asking why are you using the Alpine PXA-H701 and the Zapco DSP6?

 

[SQChevy 10+ year member]

Well the Alpine PXA-H701 will give you 31 band digital EQ for 2 Fronts, 1 Rear, and 1 Sub input. It gives you the ability to save 6 settings and works well with other Alpine units. I would suggest that over the DSP6, but that is just my opinion.