Digital Tweak-A-Saurus

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@?,*???&?
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Digital Tweak-A-Saurus

Post by @?,*???&? » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:31 pm

Came across some rave reviews of these glass optical cables last night.

Having heard the difference between the Zaolla mic cable vs. the average mortal cable, I am intrigued to hear what a really bitchin' glass optical cable can do for my digital adat clock source and occasional external 8 inputs. I notice this cable even sports the green sleeve- to fight stray infra-red noise perhaps ala the CD Stoplight?

http://www.apolloa-v.com/servlet/the-20 ... ls-/Detail

What are you guys using for toslink/adat cables?

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Post by joel hamilton » Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:39 pm

"What are you guys using for toslink/adat cables?"

Total pooplog optical cables, as I dont have anything too crititical connected via optical at all. Just some spare I/O off my main converters, and a finalizer thingy that can be fun for certain things via AES/EBU.

I dont even know what kind of optical cables I have going to that I/O.... probably one I ripped off our ADAT's 5 years ago....

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Cellotron
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Post by Cellotron » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:09 pm

I think there should be 2 strict rules when purchasing optical cables:
1) keep them as short of a length as humanly possible
2) instead of paying over $100 for a single meter buy a Hosa, and send the additional cash to a decent charity like America's Second Harvest instead.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

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Post by spankenstein » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:34 pm

Do you guys realise that the big benefit in optical data transmission is in the lengths? Miles of it. Every packet across the internet hits massive optical links. You look a a SONET like an OC-768 and that's something like 3800 24bit/44.1khz files AT ONCE (40Gbps). Fiber as a medium is not a holdback the optics and electronics at the ends are.

I'm really glad that people care to think and be concerened about the sound but in the grand scheme of things audio is not pushing this medium at all. If there is problems in going to be in your devices and not the cable.

We work with an interconnect (InfiniBand) that has 15m limit over the copper cables but can go indefinitely with optical and repeaters. This is 10Gbps carrying data for weather modeling, computational fluid dynamics, war simulations, gamma ray modeling... all very important very critical to be right data. The fiber all of this hits is your plain old "bought a spool and put and end on" optical cable.

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Bill @ Irie Lab
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science behindthe Voodoo?

Post by Bill @ Irie Lab » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:40 am

In the audiophile world (where superstition and music meet) hobbyists are not ALL cranks, there are also people with d*mn fine ears and yet others with strong science and engineering backgrounds, as well.

Putting aside the fluids and stick-on lunar-aligning pucks, some very bright music lovers have thought a LOT about interconnection of components, analog and digital.

As the culture has it, the gurus evaluate gear and technology and then their conclusions are disseminated by the believers as occult knowledge, cabbalist and arcane. So it comes to us.

To the point - glass fibre has this rep for superiority chiefly because of the higher quality of glass optical drive sections in high-end gear. (and I suspect that the ease in which plastic cables can be made has brought in low skill manufactures to further lower expectations).

Cravat emptor - let the buyer beware. Let your ears be your guide.

Bill
I&TC - Intonation and Technology Company
Irie Lab Sound Studios

***** Sound Science & Soul *****

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