Audio Optical Cable

Our website offers the advice you need to help find the best audio cables, coaxical and digital.

Audio optical cables are becoming a necessity in home audio system and in audio systems in general. Digital audio signals are now the primary method of presenting sound. The old method called analog is almost now non-existent. Television has cut analog out completely and is just about 100% all digital. Digital audio is the system used to create sound in CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, and all audio and video played on your computer or online. Analog is the type of audio you would find on VHS tapes and cassette tapes. Since digital audio is processed by a microchip it is able to be presented at a greater quality and creates a premium sound for the listener. Such high quality sound needs to be delivered through a cable to you audio output, or speakers. Audio optical cables have been designed to transmit the best quality of sound from the audio output source to your speakers. When looking at digital audio cables you have two options coaxial and optical cables.

The primary difference between coaxial and optical audio cables is the quality of sound over long distances. Coaxial audio cables are to be more inexpensive and are probably the most common. Although it is hard to tell the difference between coaxial audio cables and optical audio cables over short distances you can sure tell a difference if the length of cord is over 15 feet. Optical audio cables can hold the quality of sounds as it travels long distances through the cable. Optical cables are a bit finicky at times, if the cable is going to be twisted turned, or bent to fit certain tight spaces you may want to consider to stay with coaxial cables. Optical cables will lose quality is they bend, twist turn, or get moved a lot. The last thing to take into consideration when deciding between coaxial or optical is the amount of radio frequency in the area the cable will be present. Audio Optical cables can carry a better sound through high amounts of radio frequency noise.

Audio Optical Cable Information

Optical audio cables are made to carry digital audio to your speakers from your audio output. Almost all home theater receivers, computers, Blu-Ray players, DVD players, digital signal processors, CD players, game systems such as , Sony Playstation 2 & 3, Xbox all use optical audio optical cables to transmit the digital audio signals. The optical cables play a huge role in preserving and transmitting the audio to your movies, tv shows, and video games.

Unlike coaxial cables, optical cables, do not use RCA connectors but they use connectors called Toslink. Toslink creates a transmission system composed of optical audio signals instead of electrical signals making them heavily resistant to radio frequency noise or electromagnetic noise. This allows them to carry premium sounds signals for long distances. The Toslink connectors were first invented by Toshiba to stream audio digital audio through fiber optic cables. It was first used in Toshiba’s cd players but quickly became the norm for just about every CD player and now almost all systems with an audio output. They are usually 1mm thick and have a maximum length of 10m. Some of the best optical audio cable companys you will find are Monster Cable, Belkin and Tripp Lite.

The Best Selling Audio Optical Cables

$6.34 - AmazonBasics Toslink Digital Audio Optical Cable - BEST PRICE!

This cable is the top selling cable on Amazon right now and is a 6 foot (1.8 meter) black Toslink audio optical cable. It was constructed with heavy duty pvc pipe outer layer and is gold plated. This optical cable is compatible with almost all up to date home theater receivers, dvd players, cd players, video game consoles, and blu-ray players.

$0.01 - Tripp Lite A102-02M Digital Optical Audio Cable: A 6 foot (1.8 meter) cable that was constructed with a Superior-grade optical fiber to transmit the most premium sound possible. The precision polished optical connectors allow this cable to deliver pure audio at the highest volumes. Like all audio optical cables it is immune to all radio frequency noise or electromagnetic noise.