Just take a peak behind some higher end source components, they rarely have a toslink connection. They have a coax and sometimes a XLR digital connection.

mine do have optical as well as others. i enjoy the flexibility that differing connections offers me, just in case im feeling extra special one day and decide to switch it around.

It's a digital system. Speed of the photons/electrons isn't going to make it sound any different. Nor will noise, unless the noise is picked up and amplified by the analog section. Noise in the digital section (assuming it is well designed, and we wouldn't buy poorly designed stuff, right? Right?) will result in either nothing or a data error. THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN STATE IN A DIGITAl SYSTEM.

At one time I hoped the internet and folks day to day experience with digital data would make this more clear, but we live in a world where viruses can make a user jump through 3-5 hoops before activation and still spread. Sigh.

As Gonk points out, using optical has the advantage that there is no way that a grounding or other electrical problem might cause issues between equipment via a chunk of glass or plastic. Most important though, which inputs and are available on the back panel, that is, really, the key question.

how come people ask a question and then never post as to what they did for a solution....

[This message has been edited by curegeorg (edited April 08, 2004).]