Question on Toslink Cables for TV Sound & Great Power Cord Tweak for CD Audio

[EdwardGein]

I haven't been back here for a while since I used the great advice I got and bought a Blu-Ray Player (Panasonic BD55 whose price seems to have almost doubled from the $350 I paid for it) which I love especially the True HD Sound and I really feel I'm in a movie theater.

I've been spoiled so much by the True HD Sound, I'm now obsessed with improving my TV 5.1 Digital Sound which totally pales to True HD Sound and was wondering if I use a better glass fiber optic cable for my sound if I'll notice that much of a difference? Please no posts from people who think all digital sound is the same (I got into that argument years ago here and there's no point rehashing). If you do think there would be a noticeable difference in the audio sound which cable would you recommend? There don't seem to be many reviews onlline on optic cables (even the ones here are mainly by no more then 1-2 people which isn't enough for me to go by). I can't use HDMI cable for my receiver as its an older model (Denon 3801) without an HDMI input. Will True HD Sound ever be available for TV?

In regards to CD audio sound, I bought a (Harmony) power cord from an incredible company online company called Audio Horizons for I think $230 on a 10 day trial and within 10 seconds it made a night and day improvement on my CD audio sound - better tighter bass and no musical drops as well as a livelier ballsier sound with more umph. I was shocked how much better it made my CD sound, I honestly wasn't expecting much and if it wasn't for the 10 day trial, I wouldn't have bought it. The guy behind this company is a genius. I wish I could sell his stuff.

Edward Gein

PS While my General interest blog is doing very good (90,000 readers a Month) my online Home Audio Store was a total disaster financially and in what could be a total idiot move on my part, I set up another store selling Discount Vinyl Records and Home Audio Equipment, www.VinylRecordsandHomeAudio.com which your welcome to check out I admit. I don't even have a record player and hate records because I can't fast forward tracks and scratch them up! I thought maybe there might be a niche demand for records. I might be throwing good money after bad!

[N. Abstentia]

I haven't been back here for a while since I used the great advice I got and bought a Blu-Ray Player (Panasonic BD55 whose price seems to have almost doubled from the $350 I paid for it) which I love especially the True HD Sound and I really feel I'm in a movie theater.

Well the price on that player didn't really double, the player was just discontinued. It was replaced by a new model which is better and cheaper:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_133BD60...0K.html?tp=171

And as far as the optical cable goes....no, you won't hear a difference. But if it makes you feel better then go for it. Buy the most expensive cable you can find. Just keep in mind it's digital so it's either on or off. There cannot be any difference in the sound quality. You can't argue with physics. No way is the compressed, low bitrate sound of your TV going to compete with TrueHD sound.

[pixelthis]

WHERE to start?
Dont know about the quality you will get from your TV toslink out.
THIS is the only way to get a digital feed out of most sets, and its my understanding its only 2 channel. Sorry.
I have an older receiver also, but I get my audio from the cable box, and its really spectacular, not as good as BLU but what is?
The 5.1 stuff is great with exelent channel seperation, and DOLBY II works fine with two channel stuff.
These days you need either cable or a dish, they are the only way to get a wide selection
of HD and really nice sound and picture.
If OTA is your only choice you might want to get a stand alone tuner(not a converter box).
When I started I had a Samsung HD tuner hooked to my antenna and the sound was great.
BUT cable or dish is really the only way to go.
Really.

[EdwardGein]

Problem is my digital 5.1 TV sound can't compare to Blu-Ray True HD Sound and I'm wondering if a better optical cable might make my TV sound better.

[pixelthis]

Problem is my digital 5.1 TV sound can't compare to Blu-Ray True HD Sound and I'm wondering if a better optical cable might make my TV sound better.

No, no more than that power cord will improve your sound, any "improvement" is only between your ears, called the placebo effect.
Digital is digital, as long as your cable can transmit light it will work about as good as it can.
OF course a high end CD player will sound better than the two channel sound coming from a TV tuner.
anything sounds better than the sound from a TV tuner.
Check your TV for a fake "surround" mode, that helps sometimes.
BEST THING IS TO completely ignore your tuner and get the audio from somewhere else.

[N. Abstentia]

Problem is my digital 5.1 TV sound can't compare to Blu-Ray True HD Sound and I'm wondering if a better optical cable might make my TV sound better.

No. But I'm sure you'll buy a $300 cable anyway so go right ahead.

[Ed_in_Tx]

Problem is my digital 5.1 TV sound can't compare to Blu-Ray True HD Sound and I'm wondering if a better optical cable might make my TV sound better.

Because your TV is receiving compressed AC-3 digital audio with up to 5.1 audio channels, that is bit-rate limited to work within the ATSC television standards, plus you have the broadcast engineers tweaking and adjusting the audio upstream like the "Dialog Normalize" that's supposed to level out the audio differences between stations, before your digital TV receives it. An optical Toslink cable will carry that digital bit stream to your AV receiver's optical input, and it either will do the job, or it won't.

[EdwardGein]

In the case of the cable which is $229, its not a placebo effect, it actually does improve my cd audio sound.

[pixelthis]

In the case of the cable which is $229, its not a placebo effect, it actually does improve my cd audio sound.

I doubt it, but at least you're providing jobs for the copper mining industry, times are hard and we must all do our part.
There are two major camps in the audio world, those that beleive in such things
and those who would rather spend their money on stuff that makes a difference.
Power cables (and line conditioners, etc) are right up there with CD player lens cleaners
and pet rocks you put on your speakers, but to each his own.

[EdwardGein]

All I can say is you should try them out as you have 10 days to return the product and get a refund. Interesting enough there are 3 perfect review ratings on this website www.audioreview.com/cat/cables/power-cables/audio-horizons/componentplus-premium-ac-power-cord/PRD_338188_5829crx.aspx The guy, Joseph Chow is well known in audio circles. He also has a deal where if you have a certain amount of freedback on Audiogon, he'll let you try them for free, I can't tell you how many things I've returned over the years because I didn't notice any audio improvement and I almost welcome not hearing improvement because I don't have so much money on hand. In this case it was an absolute night and day improvement. The guys website is www.audio-horizons.com/

[N. Abstentia]

In the case of the cable which is $229, its not a placebo effect, it actually does improve my cd audio sound.

You would have probably been better off spending that money on a new CD player if the one you have sounds that bad.

[GMichael]

You would have probably been better off spending that money on a new CD player if the one you have sounds that bad.

Or 20 to 30 new CD's?

[Hyfi]

As far as Toslink goes, there are two types that never get addressed. There are those with actual Glass fibers and those that are plastic. The polished ends on the glass are done to a higher spec than those of plastic construction since you can't get the same micro finish on plastic that you can get from glass.

That being said, I found better performance with a Cardas Digital Audio cable which is a 75ohm Video cable, than I got with a cheap plastic Toslink cable.

On a side note, I worked for a company where we designed and built some of the very first Fiber Optic Cable Polishing machines for AMP who made some of the first Toslink cables for digital transmission.

[EdwardGein]

My Jolida JD-100A CD player sounded excellent before I got the cord and with the cord it sounds incredible,

[Woochifer]

Hersh -

I see that you're still throwing money at your system. Unless you've already upgraded the speakers and the room acoustics, the cabling gives you the least bang for the buck compared to other upgrades.

Asking about an optical cable, why would you want to upgrade that when the coaxial connection has a higher maximum bandwidth? Wouldn't it make more sense to try the coaxial connection? (I would venture to guess that you got plenty of spare RCA cables lying around -- a 75 ohm composite video cable will work just fine as a coaxial digital audio cable)

Coaxial connections in general are more durable, as you don't have to worry about kinking the cable. Keep in mind of course, that the bandwidth required for CD audio and lossy 5.1 audio formats are still way below the maximum for an optical cable.

Given that you're using this for a TV, I wouldn't bother. The audio quality from the source is probably so compressed and otherwise compromised, it won't any difference whatsoever to upgrade the optical cable. With 5.1 HDTV broadcasts, the audio track uses 384k Dolby Digital, which delivers less than stellar audio quality. And because DD uses buffered data packets, real time data delivery issues such as jitter are irrelevant. Unless you're running a long cable and/or experience frequent dropouts, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot on optical cables.

[N. Abstentia]

My Jolida JD-100A CD player sounded excellent before I got the cord and with the cord it sounds incredible,

My CD player sounded MUCH better after I hooked up the power cord as well. I couldn't believe the difference that connecting the power cord made in the sound!!!

[pixelthis]

My CD player sounded MUCH better after I hooked up the power cord as well. I couldn't believe the difference that connecting the power cord made in the sound!!!

The only "difference " buying this power cord had was on the bottom line of the company
selling it.
There is little or no effect on sound from a power source, as long as its clean power,
and todays modern power supplies do an exelent job of filtering power.
And more expensive CD players do even more, with two power supplies , one for audio,
one for the motor, display, etc.
The most lucrative in a long ling of various forms of snake oil have been the "power"
con, both expensive cords with more copper than Arizona, or "power conditioners",
what they are "conditioning" power for is anybodies guess.
But if it makes you happy to toss money away, so be it, just why cant you toss any in my direction?.

[N. Abstentia]

Say what you want, but to me there was a HUGE difference in my CD sound once I connected the power cable. HUGE.

[Woochifer]

Say what you want, but to me there was a HUGE difference in my CD sound once I connected the power cable. HUGE.

ROCK ON!

[GMichael]

Say what you want, but to me there was a HUGE difference in my CD sound once I connected the power cable. HUGE.

I bet it was like night & day. Or maybe, off & on?

[Woochifer]

I bet it was like night & day. Or maybe, off & on?

Off & on ... I don't get it. Y'mean a CD player actually has a functional use other than keeping my papers from flying away?

[N. Abstentia]

Off & on ... I don't get it. Y'mean a CD player actually has a functional use other than keeping my papers from flying away?

Well duh. You don't use the cupholder on yours?

[GMichael]

Well duh. You don't use the cupholder on yours?

You mean the one that pops out automaticly when you push the button? Mine broke.

[Woochifer]

Well duh. You don't use the cupholder on yours?

Duh, y'know that cupholder requires a power cord, don't you?

[GMichael]

Duh, y'know that cupholder requires a power cord, don't you?

You don't have a powered cup holder yet? WTF? Are you living in the stone ages?