I used optical cables from Transparent. I had one for cable/satelite box and one for DVD. When I bought my Blu-ray player I just used the same Toslink cable when I put it in the DVD's place. Well I developed a problem when I switched from cable to satelite, the sound from the satelite box was tinny and no surrounds. I first thought bad cable, It wasn't, the same thing with both. I switched inputs on my processor, what?, the same horrible sound from my BR player. The last thing I suspected was a bad optical input. What happened to it I don't know. Here's the point, my satelite box only has optical, so I put that into the good optical, my BR has coaxial out so I bought a cable and I think it ended up being a Monster just because the closest place open at the time was Radio Shack. I had a noticeable improvement from my BR player using coaxial over optical. Until this experience I didn't think their was much difference either. Coaxial is also less likely to develop problems. Those optical ends seem to be more fragile.

I would take what you read on those online magazines with a grain of salt, one of the HD sites posted an article trying to say all HDMI cables were the same regardless of price.

Blackraven the operative words in your statement "IF ALL 1'S AND 0'S WERE THE SAME WHEN THEY REACH YOUR PROCESSOR". Just because a signal is digital doesn't mean it isn't immune to interference and data loss.

When I replaced a 1 meter coax from Transparent with a short Zu, the shorter length recommended by the owner manual, I didn't detect any difference. Both of these are good cables though.

So I'm not sure how much difference there might be between quality coax cables but I'm fairly convinced now that coaxial is a better method of delivering data over optical.

It's interesting the firewire sounds best. I think that was actually the best upcoming connection until HDMI gangstered it's way onto the market. HDMI has been nothing but a point of confusion and deception since it's roll out. It's the worst thing to ever hit the industry. But, I digress.