Optical and Coax cable length? - Page 2

kevinahcc20 · 1st December 2020, 11:30 AM

I usually measure the distance between the components to be connected, add a bit of length to allow for routing and have some slack on the connections, and then round up to the closest length interconnect commercially available.

ferret · 1st December 2020, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferret

The plastic material has an extremely high attenuation rate compared to plastic.

My bad, did not check and then got distracted. Should read "compared to silica/glass."

atarashi · 1st December 2020, 05:37 PM

As long as needed and as short as possible.
Wirth copper cables I start worring above 15m, optical can bei longer, depending on the cable.

BR
Michael

tvrgeek · 1st December 2020, 06:02 PM

Each cable has an official spec which you can look up.
TOSLINK I think standard maximum is 5 meters, but that is because of cheap plastic fiber.
Glass can run a long way. Miles with the right GBIC. Don't know if anyone is making SPDIF in glass for long haul. I would bet 50M to be easy.
Don't know the coax length. Just 75 Ohm so I see little reason for it not to be good for 50 meters or so unless the driver is crap.

As you would expect, the longer the cable, the more important for a quality cable. Not some magic "audio crap", just quality. Belden has never let me down for cable.

If your cable is "too short" then it is a design defect with either the electronics. Not saying it can't happen, but it shouldn't. This is why we have standards.

Lampie519 · 9th March 2021, 04:30 PM

I did a test with both and found that Toslink does not have the bandwidth needed over longer distances (88Khz instead of 44kHz over SPdif 10m). This could be a problem of the plastic fiber or/and the optical transmitter/receiver. So it depends on the quality of the used components as pro stuff can run 2km over fiber (Single mode) with very high frequency.

View Poll Results: Is 1M (3.3Feet) of Coax or Toslink digital cable the right length?
No! Too long! 0.5M (1.6ft) is good enough!	1	7.14%
Yes, perfection!	6	42.86%
No! Too short! 1.5M (4.9ft) is much better!	3	21.43%
No! Too short! 2.0M (6.6ft) is much better!	0	0%
No! Too short! 3.0M (9.9ft) is much better!	0	0%
No! And you don't have the proper length in the poll! (please state length below)	4	28.57%
Voters: 14. You may not vote on this poll

1st December 2020, 11:30 AM	#11
kevinahcc20 diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Farmington Hills, MI USA	I usually measure the distance between the components to be connected, add a bit of length to allow for routing and have some slack on the connections, and then round up to the closest length interconnect commercially available. __________________ Kevin(ahcc20)...I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

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1st December 2020, 05:37 PM	#13
atarashi diyAudio Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Vienna	As long as needed and as short as possible. Wirth copper cables I start worring above 15m, optical can bei longer, depending on the cable. BR Michael

1st December 2020, 06:02 PM	#14
tvrgeek diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: North Carolinia/Piedmont	Each cable has an official spec which you can look up. TOSLINK I think standard maximum is 5 meters, but that is because of cheap plastic fiber. Glass can run a long way. Miles with the right GBIC. Don't know if anyone is making SPDIF in glass for long haul. I would bet 50M to be easy. Don't know the coax length. Just 75 Ohm so I see little reason for it not to be good for 50 meters or so unless the driver is crap. As you would expect, the longer the cable, the more important for a quality cable. Not some magic "audio crap", just quality. Belden has never let me down for cable. If your cable is "too short" then it is a design defect with either the electronics. Not saying it can't happen, but it shouldn't. This is why we have standards.

9th March 2021, 04:30 PM	#15
Lampie519 diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Hoofddorp	I did a test with both and found that Toslink does not have the bandwidth needed over longer distances (88Khz instead of 44kHz over SPdif 10m). This could be a problem of the plastic fiber or/and the optical transmitter/receiver. So it depends on the quality of the used components as pro stuff can run 2km over fiber (Single mode) with very high frequency.