Optical Cable Question

[mixadude]

As far as I know, most errors in FO transmission occur at the ends, unless there is some damage somewhere along the medium, and those can be located with tdr. When i find one that's acting up I just get another. When we do long runs we install many extras just for this purpose, so we aren't trying to polish an end there in the field, in a big hurry.

I suppose glass might be more optically pure than plastic. I'm pretty sure i remember there are also wavelength capability differences, but if a system is designed properly then I doubt if it would matter. Most likely the ends are the biggest difference between a cable that sounds good and one that doesn't.