good and bad optic cable

arela · Post by **arela** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:25 pm

I bought myself 2 new Hama optical cables today. ODT - ODT it says and QUALITY *****

Well, i got noise.
When i pluged in my old grey optical cable, everything is ok.

I remember someone talk about bad cables some time ago, but i could not find it.
Anybody experienced bad optical cables?
Is there any safe buy?
(i need more than my old grey? and can't remember where i bought it)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2006-09-26 15:52 ]</font>

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:57 pm

I only hope that this doesn't apply to the 2 'more convenient length' ones, which I picked up for 5 Euro each yesterday in a shop - just because I spotted them and I remembered my 3 m cables 'bridge' a 1m distance...

cheers, Tom

arela · Post by **arela** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:03 am

My old cable did not fit into a sp/dif of another soundcard, guess the new one would.

Is there 2 standards?

found this
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 1&forum=33

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2006-09-27 01:31 ]</font>

arela · Post by **arela** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:44 am

I called Tre45, the best music shop in town, and they confirmed that there is 2 types.
1 for minidisc etc and one for us

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:26 am

so the bad sound was due to non-matching terminals ?
my cheapos seem to work, though I haven't tried a high quality source yet

cheers, Tom

arela · Post by **arela** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:15 am

"so the bad sound was due to non-matching terminals ? " Yes but there was only noise, but i managed to hear music with moving the conectors up, down and sideways.
In fact it seems toslink is cheaper than the hifi cables i bought first.
But it didn' matter, i got my money back and bought a new AND MY NEW USED AI3 is working

voidar · Post by **voidar** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:14 am

I use some pretty cheap ADAT-cables.

My question would be; would there be a big difference between these and cables from i.e. Apogee?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:37 am

how long would you need to find out the difference ?
could you afford (as a pro) to spoil a studio session because of the wrong cable ?

the Apg may even be from the same production as the cheapo around the corner - but they've (most likely) verified the specs.
They won't risk their reputation on such an item, ... or would they... ?

cheers, Tom

voidar · Post by **voidar** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:36 am

Their adverticement has more to do with their cables being indestructable than sounding better.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:21 am

considering how I treat my cables that is a very convincing argument...

Post by **garyb** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:46 pm

optical cables are either plastic(the cheap ones) or real glass fiber(the expensive ones). in shorter runs(10-15 feet,3-4 meters), both are probably the same. certainly the glass fiber has a better chance of transmiting the data without degradation. but either way, the data makes it there or not. the sound shouldn't be changed one way or another as long as the data makes it to the other end.....