If you've ever heard your speaker buzz, that's interference. The easiest way to combat this is to route your aux cables as far away from the mains as possible though that's not to say that you won't have other sources of interference that can mess with your signal. Though not prone to interference in the way that aux is, digital can 'lose' data, especially over longer cable runs.
This is what happens when some of the binary '1s' or '0s' arrive at the wrong time or don't make it down the cable at all. This can sometimes result in jittery or blank portions of audio — which is why, especially over long cable runs, well-routed and shielded aux can come out as the winner.
So, if you want to achieve surround sound with aux, you'd need to route multiple aux cables to the various speakers — which can be impractical and messy. In terms of value for money, aux cables are usually cheaper, more versatile, and most commonly found on modern devices than their digital counterpart.
Most people would probably agree that, all things being equal, you get clearer sound, better channel separation and superior spatial quality from an optical line.
However, those same people may also tell you the difference isn't particularly noticeable, as it also depends in part on how good your speakers are, how long your cable is, the source recording that you're listening too, and, ultimately, how good your hearing is. For example, you're more likely to pick out the differences between aux and optical listening to an uncompressed FLAC recording played through a high-end sound system than you are listening to a kbps mp3 file played through your phone.
But does this difference really matter? Why not do a comparison of both formats? If your device supports the two, it's easy — just plug both in and then switch outputs on your device.
You may find that you favour one over another, or you may find that it's just not significant enough a difference to worry about. When it comes to audio, it seems that both aux and optical are on their way out. In fact, it might seem surprising how long the humble aux cable has lasted in an industry that regularly kills off formats every few years. Analogue as a medium for home entertainment was designed to meet the needs of an era that is long behind us.
But does this spell disaster for the two formats? Not yet. Ultimately, the differences between aux and optical have arguably very minute impacts on the quality of what you hear. As to which option you choose, it might come down to convenience, or just personal preference. Note the emphasis on well-made. The cheaper cables are quite thin and so you should be careful when connecting your equipment together.
However, the more expensive cables may prove to be more robust and should cope better if you regularly reconfigure your wiring. They will also likely perform better if you want to run the cable over a long distance. You may see cable manufacturers claim that their optical cables support the transfer of high-resolution audio and Dolby Digital Plus. While this might be technically true in terms of bandwidth, you are unlikely to find many devices that will support these audio formats via their optical connections.
The AmazonBasics digital optical audio cable should do the job just fine — however, there are other good value brands there too like this KabelDirekt digital optical audio cable:. KabelDirekt cables offer excellent quality at a very competitive price.
This optical audio cable has male-to-male gold-plated connectors and is available in several different lengths. Just make sure you double-check the length of the cable you are buying and get the right size for your needs. A well-made optical audio cable should work well up to 5 meters. You may even find that you will get a good signal at 10 meters or more. However, by the time you get to this length, then you are more likely to run into problems. It would certainly be worth considering buying a higher-quality digital optical cable for longer runs.
The electronics built into your hardware can vary in quality. These extenders use Cat5 or Cat6 cable to send the optical audio signal over very long distances. Many people wonder which connection they should use to send audio between their devices — optical or HDMI cables.
If you are sending the same type of audio format, then it will sound the same regardless if you are using optical or HDMI. This is where you can send audio from a TV to a soundbar or AV receiver. The bottom line? For the same audio format, they offer the same audio quality. So this support for higher resolution audio formats may one reason to choose coaxial over optical audio.
In theory, coaxial could be. Before you hear a digital audio signal it needs to be converted to analog audio. A DAC performs this process. A poorly designed device may create audible differences when using the optical or coaxial inputs. The one you choose will usually depend on the connections on your other devices. Or, the cables that you have available. One scenario you may come across is that you have an optical output on your device a DVD or Blu-ray player, for example , but only a coaxial input on your amplifier.
However, there is a simple solution. You can buy an optical audio adapter to convert the audio to an RCA coaxial output like the one pictured below:. This will take an optical output — like from your Blu-ray player — and output the audio signal via coaxial.
The one highlighted above is bi-directional. This means that you can also use it to convert a coaxial output to an optical input. Which might prove to be really useful. The use of converters can solve many potential problems when we need to mix and match different audio types and connections.
You just need to make sure that the converter will pass all the signals that you want. For example, some may only send stereo audio and not multichannel surround sound. Best iPhone 13 Cases.
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