Optical cables, also named as TOSLINK, are optical fiber cables designed primarily to carry audio signals between consumer audio equipments nowadays. Gadgets today such as DVD players and home theater systems generally have these digital optical outputs. They enable digital audio to stream from one source to a specific decoder, and then out to speakers. These cables deliver high quality audio every time.
S/PDIF standards have become the general standard for audio streaming. Gaming consoles and high definition multimedia players nowadays employ such sockets to enable high definition audio streams. Typically, audio signals go through decoders which then decodes these signals according to their formats. Because of this, high quality audio can be paired up with high definition videos and movies. Its speed has also greatly improved over the past years, now able to transmit signals even faster.
When optical cables were introduced in 1983, they were only capable of achieving speeds of 3.1 Mbit per second. However, these days, such cables can now reach bandwidths of up to 125 Mbit per second, obviously showing the fast development of these fiber optics for the past years.
Home theater setups typically use these digital optical audio cables. They may run from the source to the decoder, which then decodes the signals and projects it to the speakers. Such cables were originally limited to only 20-bits at 48KHz. Today, they are developed to support every modern audio format. Dolby Digital and DTS formats are some that they are able to support.
There are many manufacturers of optical cables nowadays. Optical fibers are coated with resin, and then a plastic jacket to reinforce its strength. These layers do not interfere with the fiber optics, as they only protect the cable itself. Generally, fibers inside are made of thin and transparent plastic or glass. Such cables transmit light which is then encoded or decoded into audio streams. Each end of the cables have connectors which go in optical audio ports found in players and encoders.
Computers today also utilize this interface in audio, as some audio cards today support 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setups. Home theaters are now possible to make, and is quite easy to setup, as well. External audio processors which can be easily hooked up to laptops and desktops can also be used, to easily upgrade your computer’s capability to transmit high fidelity audio.
Investing in good cables and equipment can truly give you unparalleled audio experience.
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