Is one better than the other for playing CDs or DVDs?

I've heard two answers: no, and coaxial. There is some extra signal conversion involved in optical from what I understand; whether that conversion is enough to affect the digital signal is a little less clear. There was some discussion of the two formats in this thread that you may find interesting.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

If there are differences, I don't think they would matter in the real world listening of DVDs or CDs.

Myself, I use whatever is convenient. I have a lot of studio equipment that uses S/PDIF coax and that fills up the coax jacks on my 950 in a hurry. I use optical then for the other components. No worry, no problem.....

I don't know why, but Stereophile has a decided bias against optical. I have seen references to "digital fog" and bandwidth issues of optical vs coax. I have seen in more than one place it mentioned that even though coax, because it is electrical and can have more susceptibility to EMI/RFI, does in fact do much better in terms of jitter than optical. Maybe due to the extra electrical-to-optical and back conversion that's necessary for Toslink. FWIW.

Thanks for your help!

In principle, coaxial has higher bandwidth and theoretically can give you better sound. However, in practice, the difference is probably undetectable to the human ear.

There are two main advantages to coaxial: it's cheaper, and you can bend this way and that without it breaking.

There is one main advantage to optical: not being an electrical signal, it will not contribute to a ground loop problem in your system. If you're getting a ground loop hum, you could always try switching from coax to optical and see if it clears it up. It might, or it might not, depending on the actual path the group loop is taking.

Jeff

I use digital coax and it works fine for me. I have never had any problems with it.

I was just going to echo Jeff's obversation regarding the Toslink interface. Some of the earlier Toslink interfaces had a somewhat limited bandwidth, and I think that bad rap stuck with them.

Yeah, I should add that I have used both, and not really heard any differences. But I do "default" to coax just because the cables are more robust.

(Nothing like a good Belden 1694A! )

Also, assuming sane logic at the recieving end, bandwidth (for a DIGITAL signal) isn't a more is better deal - either there's enough or not. If the bits can fit, GREAT! If not it's just broken.

If the equipment at the receiving is getting the signal and not dealing with it according to the best practices for the applicable protocol that's an equipment issue. Just a software engineers $0.02!