Optical Audio Cables - Producing Noticeably Better Sound

There are audio cables which use a copper wire as the conducting fiber, and there are optical audio cables which use optical fiber strands inside the cable instead.

The first conducts the sound through the cable in electrical impulses.　 The second uses light refraction within a bundle of glass or plastic optical fibers,　 through which a light pulse travels from one end of the cable to the other, refracting off the inside wall of each filament as it advances.

The TOSLINK optical cable, created by Toshiba, and named for the combination of Toshiba and link, is one of the standard cables used for CD players and similar components. 　 Normally these cables use plastic fibers but there are some with bundles of strands of fibers in plastic or quartz glass, used mainly with equipment that needs broader bandwidth transmissions.　 Most TOSLINK cables measure between 5 and 10 meters in length, because of the fragility of the cable.

Both the TOSLINK and the coaxial cables can use the S/PDIF or Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format standard protocol to transmit digital data in digital form.

The cost of optical audio cables has gone down markedly, in step with the increase of the production and installation of optical fibers.　 For the home market, optical audio cables are now available at a feasible cost. 　 Not surprisingly, many car manufacturers now install optical audio cables in the sound systems of their cars, greatly improving the quality of the experience for the driver and the passengers.　 The clarity of the sound is noticeably better than that of traditionally wired car stereos.

Optical audio cables are also now being used in intercom systems, in both business and residential settings.　 Some buildings are completely wired with optical fibers, which make it possible for those inside to communicate with excellent sound quality and to use closed circuit cameras.

Microphones which use optical audio technology provide an extremely pure quality of sound, capturing the full range of frequencies, but, of course also picking up all ambient sounds as well.　 When using such highly sensitive technologies, sound studios are needed to provide complete control of extraneous sounds.　 All professional audio equipment today uses optical audio cables to guarantee the highest grade of purity of the sounds with which they work. 　

You may not be able to detect the difference between the sound produced by sound systems which use optical audio cables; many people cannot.　 Still, for those audiophiles who spend many hours comparing and contrasting recordings, the distinction is very clear.　

Before optical fibers were developed and proven to work, the best conducting material readily available to be produced in cable form and in very large volume was copper.　 Today, copper is still widely used in electrical and telephone circuits throughout the world, but the speed and quality of the transmission of sound and of images through optical cables which we are seeing in the more developed nations will most likely leave copper cables behind in the not-too-distant future.