Could someone tell me what is going to be the best digital audio cable for high fidelity sound when connecting from my Mac Pro to an external DAC?
I've read a little bit about coaxial and optical cables online. This is what i got out of it: Optical is immune to electrical interference since its light, but coaxial isn't because its electric. Signals through optical hold up better than coaxial over long distances. There can be degradation in audio quality through an optical cable because it has to convert the signal to light and back. Optical cannot carry a signal well around a tight curve, where as coaxial can.
Can anyone clear up any fallacies in this information, if any.
It seems unlikely to me that a human would even be able to notice an audible difference between coaxial and optical, especially in a short run... which is the distance from my mac to the DAC. However, i may be incorrect in saying that when i have not listened to audio playback through either one.
My computer has toslink in/out and USB, but no coaxial. How would you connect your mac to an external DAC using coaxial? Is there a USB to coaxial cable?
I see most setups using USB to connect from their computer to their DAC. Exactly what is the difference between a USB cable and a coaxial cable?
Lastly, why is USB chosen over firewire in DAC's?
p.s. Sorry for the 20 questions
