glass optical digital cable

[danger boy]

I'm in the process of getting rid of some of my lesser quality IC's, speaker wires and digital cables.

I just bought a glass optical cable off ebay for about $34 for 1M. I hooked it up to my recevier from the optical output from the Dish Network receiver. I'm not going to say it sounds amazing and is a huge upgrade from the Monster cable I was using.

But i did notice (slightly) better seperation and clarity in the sounds. Where i noticed the biggest difference was when listening to those Sirius music channels on Dish Network. the bass is much more pronounced. I had to double check to see if my sub was on or off. The SVS was turned off.. and the bass was quite a bit better with the glass cable.

It may be hogwash.... but I figured for $34 i'd give it a try. One cable down.. 9 more to go. Whew, i'm exhausted. ;)

[gmorris]

You got a link or a picture of that glass cable? I've never heard of such a thing. It sounds interesting.

[danger boy]

glass toslink (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14965&item=5762713389&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

check it out

[gmorris]

Oh. Is the difference with that cable supposed to be with the actual fiber optic material?

[danger boy]

yes glass fiber optic instead of plastic fiber optic. suppose to reduce jitter as well.

[gmorris]

Ok. I never really thought about that before. I just kind of figured that there was only one material for fiber optic material.

Decent price. I think you're right in giving them a try.

[dkg999]

I had the same type of experience when switching optical cables from a brand we don't mention to Outlaw Audio. The sound quality, soundstage, and clarity all improved. My perception is that the db level went down for a specific volume setting on my Yamaha 5790 receiver. In a previous post the prevailing opinion was that since this is just the transmission of 1's and 0's, the cable should not impact the sound. Not being a rocket scientist, I'm not sure whether my perception was biased because I spent money on the new optical cable, or if there really is a difference!

[gmorris]

dkg999,

how do you like that Cambridge CD player you have there? Are you using an optical output to a DAC with it, or just using the player by itself.

I will be in the market for a new CD player in about 8-10 months. That Cambridge has always looked interesting to me. Audioadvisor.com sells it for $500, and I'm sure I could probably find a used one for less.

Any thougths?

[dkg999]

gmorris - I absolutely love the Cambridge Audio CDP! I am using the DAC's in the CDP and running the analog output into my Parasound P/HP-850 pre-amp. I bought mine as a showroom demo. for $399, but I don't think it had much use, as it took about 50 hours of playing time for the DAC's to smooth out. It seems to be very solid and works great. I am thinking about getting the Musical Fidelity tube buffer/DAC and using with an older Onkyo Integra 6 disc. changer to see how that will compare with the Cambridge Audio. I just keep finding other things to spend money on and haven't gotten to this yet. If you want to use an external DAC, the Cambridge 540C I believe uses the same transport as the 640C, but doesn't have the Wolfsen 24 bit DAC, and is significantly cheaper.