Best audio input?

If you had the choice between coaxial, optical, 8 ch analog, or hdmi what would you choose? And why?

Optical is my first choice, followed closely by coaxial. This is the area where my "closet purist" streak comes out.

I think HDMI is a great sloution for carrying HD video AND digital audio on one cable to minimize mess and clutter and all, but I like my sound to run along a completely different cable than my video. I've seen what "crosstalk" and interferenfe looks like on an oscilloscope, and let me tell you, it aint pretty.

Keeping audio and video separated (gee, just like they do in high quality AV receivers and disc players) just makes good sense. As far as 8-channel, that ususally means you're relying on the D/A converter onboard your disc player...umm...that's asking for trouble, too. Let your AV receiver do the number crunching, its likely got a better engine for that.

Good luck and let me know how it goes! optical is the best audio connection between components some of the other formats you mention are not audio formats optical Hi. The best Interconnect Cable is no Cable. The ideal Cable does not change the signal travelling through it in anyway.No Cable can improve the sound quality of a system,they only make it worse in varying degrees.The best Cables make things worse only a little bit. It is impossible to choose the best audio cables in advance .It depends on the Source ,the Amplifier and any other components in the chain.As regards to whether digital and optical cables are better than analog,there is no straightforward answer.It is impossible to predict whether digital and optical cables will perform better than analog.It depends on the DACs in your equipment .There is no way of knowing if they are doing what they are supposed to do properly. The only way to be sure which Interconnects are best is to try all of them and pick the ones that do not alter the sound in a negative way. Analog XLR balanced interconnects. RCA analog discrete, a close second Great for long runs, no compression or digital signal processing, no format issues, only the source device needs to support the format.

Just look at any high end equipment to see what I am talking about. The only thing better is a CAST interconnect, but it only works on some Krell products. I listened to a CD on their new FBI amp with a CAST set up, Heaven does no justice to this a description.

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