Obviously, the KISS engineering principle remains fundamentally sound, but comparing component video switching (involving a high bandwidth analog signal) to a format switch from electrical to optical with a digital signal is stretching beyond reasonableness.

Here's another way to look at it: any time you have an optical digital audio cable, there has to be a conversion to optical signal and back at either end of the optical cable. This conversion is one of the most common reasons that some people prefer coaxial digital audio, although many people also make the (very valid) claim that the conversion process is for all reasonable intents and purposes lossless. Going to an optical/coaxial converter is (aside from the coaxial digital audio cable) no different than using an optical cable to begin with.

------------------
gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links