Sold: Lifatec Silflex Glass Toslink

The van den Hul Optocoupler Toslink cable. By Lam Seng Fatt I have to admit that I was once a sceptic, but now with the help of the very revealing Lamm LL2 Deluxe preamp I am a believer. Can the material used in a fibre optic cable that transmits light affect sound quality? Previously I would have said “No”; now I will say the opposite.

I recall comparing a QED Performance medical-grade plastic Toslink cable with an MIT Terminator 3 coax while I was using the Benchmark DAC1 Pre as the preamp and found little difference between the two. So I thought then that plastic fibre optics had improved so much that it did not matter if glass or plastic was used to transmit the light signal. Then things changed – I picked up the Lamm LL2 Deluxe preamp and one day I spotted a van den Hul Optocoupler listed on hifi4sale.

I had always wanted to check out a glass Toslink and I knew for sure that the VDH Optocoupler (1st version) was made of glass. So I telephoned the seller and asked if there was a “II” marking on the jacket.

He said there was no such marking and he was quite sure it was a Mk 1. There is nothing in van den Hul”s website to confirm that the Optocoupler II uses glass, so if the seller was certain it was an Optocoupler I, I was all prepared to buy it. The seller and I met in Taipan, Subang Jaya, and after a quick exchange of cash for goods, I sped home to test it. Using the resident Roksan Caspian M1 CD player as transport and the Wyred4Sound DAC2, I played one song with the plastic Toslink and switched to the glass model. The QED Performance Toslink cable uses medical-grade plastic. Others have noticed this before – just google “glass vs plastic Toslink”.

The glass Toslink sounded cleaner and clearer while the plastic sounded warmer, less detailed and not as clear with “fattish” images. If I were to use metal to describe the sound quality, I would say that plastic Toslink sounds like a copper cable while glass Toslink sounds like a silver cable. After a while, I decided that I preferred the sound of glass Toslink in my system. The clear and clean sound with more bite to leading edges appealed more to me than a warmish, “fattish” sound.

Guys, is anybody of you using the Toslink input of the Pulse and can recommend a good cable which sits tight and is not one of the high priced ones? Thanks in advcance. It really depends on how you define expensive. In the realm of 'inexpensive' (to me), the only glass fiber Toslink cable I'm aware of is the at $60.5m length, and only marginally more expensive for longer lengths, for instance 3 feet is $69. It sits tight because it has a superior metal back shell connector. There used to be an essentially similar version offered by Amphenol but it was discontinued some time ago and is no longer available. The only possible draw back to using glass fiber cable is its much more prone to micro fractures than plastic fiber cables, meaning you really should unfurl it, install it, and leave it alone.

Any real constant disconnection/reconnection, or other unnecessary/frequent bending of the cable can potentially cause damage that would not occur with the more flexible and durable POF Toslink cables such as the various models offered by Audioquest, Wireworld, or even Monster Cable. Audioquest has a glass Toslink cable that was $450 last I ever checked, and Wireworld's glass cable, while somewhat more reasonable, is about $200 1m length. That makes the Silflex glass cable a relative bargain, unless you just go for a POF Toslink cable instead.

They have lower bandwidth than glass, fine for gaming systems and CD resolution music, but possibly inadequate for hi-rez music files. Thanks for the response, Mikey. Really appreciate it!! I read about the Lifetac a while ago.recommended by a lot of users. I used other (non glass) no-name toslink cables which had a metal back shell connector which didn´t sit tight. Therefore I´m a bit paranoid in that regards As you already mentioned maybe the POF cables (I´m tempting to get the one from Blue Jeans Cables) would be - for my use case (CDP, WD TV = all connected via a Toslink splitter to the Pulse) - good enough.

If I would live in the US I would try BJC´s offer with the 30 days return policy. But since I´m not living there I need to be sure that they (BJC or another one) sit tight. Thanks for the response, Mikey. Really appreciate it!! I read about the Lifetac a while ago.recommended by a lot of users.

I used other (non glass) no-name toslink cables which had a metal back shell connector which didn´t sit tight. Therefore I´m a bit paranoid in that regards As you already mentioned maybe the POF cables (I´m tempting to get the one from Blue Jeans Cables) would be - for my use case (CDP, WD TV = all connected via a Toslink splitter to the Pulse) - good enough. If I would live in the US I would try BJC´s offer with the 30 days return policy. But since I´m not living there I need to be sure that they (BJC or another one) sit tight. Im sure you can't go wrong with BJC, they are great people and sell quality product, I own a couple of their HDMI cables and they are superb value for the money. In terms of whats sold in Europe, what about?

Is this reasonably priced in your country? The Forest is about $45 here in Germany. A bit steep for POF cable, however much more easily returned in the event you don't like the fit/seating of the connector.

Maybe have a look for the Wireworld Nova too, also POF, it might be little more reasonable, especially in a longer length. Ditto Monster Cable, I have one of their POF cables coming out of an Apple Airport Express.

They were one of the first to offer one end with a 3.5mm 'mini Toslink' connector, its a pretty good quality cable for about $29. Guys, is anybody of you using the Toslink input of the Pulse and can recommend a good cable which sits tight and is not one of the high priced ones? Thanks in advcance. It really depends on how you define expensive. In the realm of 'inexpensive' (to me), the only glass fiber Toslink cable I'm aware of is the at $60.5m length, and only marginally more expensive for longer lengths, for instance 3 feet is $69. It sits tight because it has a superior metal back shell connector.

There used to be an essentially similar version offered by Amphenol but it was discontinued some time ago and is no longer available. The only possible draw back to using glass fiber cable is its much more prone to micro fractures than plastic fiber cables, meaning you really should unfurl it, install it, and leave it alone. Any real constant disconnection/reconnection, or other unnecessary/frequent bending of the cable can potentially cause damage that would not occur with the more flexible and durable POF Toslink cables such as the various models offered by Audioquest, Wireworld, or even Monster Cable. Audioquest has a glass Toslink cable that was $450 last I ever checked, and Wireworld's glass cable, while somewhat more reasonable, is about $200 1m length. That makes the Silflex glass cable a relative bargain, unless you just go for a POF Toslink cable instead. They have lower bandwidth than glass, fine for gaming systems and CD resolution music, but probably not adequate for hi-rez music files. This brand looks nice, I am going to consider one when I revamp my cables shortly.

This thread is very helpful. I definitely recommend Blue Jeans Cable. I have their Toslink and it not only works (as almost all Toslink cables do if the runs are under 20 feet) but is solidly constructed with a surprisingly flexible cable and nice conncetors. I am not into spending lots of money on cables to begin with but Toslink is never going to be the best-sounding digital option. If you are using a device with a coax or AES output, I'd use that (and Blue Jeans Cable is also great for those).

But I understand some devices like Apple TV or certain game consoles only have Toslink out. It's not worth putting a bunch of money into, in my mind. I have used and enjoyed it with my CD player into my Xfi but it is not the last word in digital audio.

Keep it simple and low-cost. Now, if your concern is getting hi-res audio of a device that only sends 16/44.1 over Toslink then I recommend reading this article. The 'winner' is here: Do realize that if you use that approach you'll need to make sure your device can put out PCM and not DTS or something like that. 'Toslink is never going to be the best-sounding digital option' That's your opinion and you are entitled to it but I can switch back and forth all day long between Toslink, Coas, AES, etc. And never ever hear the slightest difference. Since I am an Internet nobody you don't have to believe me, but Mark Waldrep who has a Phd in audio recording technologies, Teaches a college level course in Audio Production and owns and runs AIX records also doesn't give a twit about digital cables and often uses very cheap cables in his demo hookups. I do like Blue Jean cables.

Solid materials at reasonable prices. They just don't sound any different from any other cables or ones I've assembled using the same materials. Sorry, there's just no fairy dust! I also don't believe in man made global warming.

Sold Lifatec Silflex Glass Toslink Cable

Sorry, just couldn't resist! I'm familiar with Mark Waldrep.

I have read many of his posts. I also teach college level audio production courses. I don't think there's any magic in digital cables, though in the case of coax you can obtain more optimal cables (particularly in longer runs or noisy environments) by looking at capacitance, inductance, resistance etc. What I meant to communicate was that Toslink is, to me, a less robust and generally suboptimal way to transfer audio and that, in my personal experience, I have heard DACs that do not sound as good with toslink as they do with other sources.

Of course this varies wildly - some sound rock solid with all inputs, some Toslink may sound the best, etc. But I just generally consider it less than ideal when we have coax which can be used for incredibly long runs, ethernet which can also go for long runs, and USB which gives you the asynchronous benefits.

Like I said, it's not likely to make a huge difference. But I would encourage people to listen to see if the implementation of all the inputs on their DACs are indistinguishable.

And again, I'm not the one suggesting people buy anything in the 3-digit range. I can't tell if your stance on global warming is meant to be a 'gotcha! Just kidding' or if you genuinely think that bolsters your cool-guy persona. Anyhow, last I checked this isn't HydrogenAudio or Head-fi's 'Sound Science' section so let's move on.

In the interest of wrapping this all up, I feel my philosophy on cables is always the same no matter how many times i hear the argument. If you cannot tell the difference, then dont buy the more expensive stuff. For me I find differences depending on the type of cable in question and the quality of the cable. I feel most people will without even listening say they feel more comfortable using a cable that was new and a little thicker wires than one that is old, beat up and flimsy. One inspires confidence the other might fall apart. I find the difference between a sub-par cable and a quality cable without much frills tends to be within $10-25 of price. I am excited to get my setup all together after this thread though because I do plan to make the most of those inputs on my X Fi and really that means I am looking for a nice reasonably priced cable.

I think that $70 one is the most expensive I would go. I feel like as an audiophile I should at least own one glass fiber optic tosLink cable, to see if I like it better or not and also that one seems to be of nice quality. I am looking forward to other peoples recommendations though as to other options, as I havent really met a tosLink cable I havent liked so far.