Digital Coaxial vs Optical Audio Cables vs HDMI - Which one is the best for Sound Quality?

Digital Coaxial vs Digital Optical Audio Cable vs HDMI cables - Which one should you choose for your Hi-Fi system or Home Cinema?

For more than a decade now, both Digital Coax and Digital Optical technologies have shared the responsibility of carrying and transmitting digital audio signals in high resolution between playback sources such as CD, BluRay, DVD and other media players to amplifiers, receivers and other sound systems. However, they are fundamentally different in terms of the connector types, cables and resolution support. Let’s move to their comparison, competencies and drawbacks.

Video Timeline
0:00 - 0:33 - Introduction
0:34 - 1:04 - Role of Digital Coaxial and Digital Optical Cables
1:05 - 3:40 - Comparision between Digital Coaxial and Digital Optical Cables
3:41 - 4:27 - HDMI for Home Theatre audio playback. Is it better?
4:28 - 4:52 - Know More about audio cables & Subscribe

Watch our youtube video on speaker cables -

Courtesy: Yamaha, KEF, Onkyo, Polk Audio
Subscribe for more unboxing, review, how-to, tips & tutorial videos.

Music: zeropage - Ambiphonic (The song is permitted for commercial use under license “Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)“”)

[venator]

Thanks sir for this video I was so confused, now I know that I have to use digital coaxial for my home theatre. I've been searching for a video like this for a very long time on YouTube.

[twinturbo]

Excellent video thanks, very clear and thorough comparison 👌

[Kumar-uifl]

Excellent Presentation. Highly Appreciate. Thanks for the side by side comparison.

[Automotivepanda]

Nice one thanks for making that clear I had no other choice then connect my new 4k Blu-ray player from Sony to a coaxial because my player doesn't have optical and my receiver doesn't have HDMI audio so there was no other choice then coaxial. When the player arrives I hope everything works thank you for this video 👍

[davidchavez]

This is a very informative video thanks for this!

[jeffrielly]

seems like coaxial is more cable management friendly, guess that's the one I'll have to use, I'll just have to get one that is very well shielded so it doesn't pick up interference

[jamesproudlove]

Thank you for your post. You made very clear the pro & cons of each of the formats on offer.

[krkthambu]

I subscribed.. Good presentation. Very informative. I have very clear about coaxial and Optical system of transmitting audio. I have only coaxial input and output in my home theatre system and confused with missing of optical in and out put. Now your information made me very clear shape. Thank you brother.

[bommareddybrijendrareddy]

It was extremely informative and helpful for me.😊
Thanks!

[intothedragon]

Always very useful and informative. You've got a new subscriber

[jantagarageforyou]

A nice and informative Bro...Nice channel and thanks a lot ! 😊

[elendil]

Optical carries 8 channels at 44.1/48 kHz while SPDIF(coaxial) carries only 2 channels stereo.

[romance]

I PREFER THE DIGITAL COAXIAL, THE SIGNAL IS 5, 1 AND THE SOUND IS GREAT,

[Mr_DuckOO]

Bro my tv is non arc tv and now I have connected normal hdmi to sound bar....it is not working as expected...will this be resolved if I connect optical cable?will I get better output?

[Codysurfsup]

So then my question is, if it can transmit high res audio but not lossless, what is the line?

[gokulnath]

For best audio quality from tv to soundbar, hdmi or optical cable which one is better?

[kevincrutchfield]

I had my living room updated a few years ago and my setup consists of a Bose Lifestyle 48 with 5 cube speakers connected to a bass unit that all 5 speakers connect to. My tv is connected to a Directv receiver via HDMI and my BluRay is connected also to a HDMI. The audio return is an optical cable from the TV to the Lifestyle 48 base units optical in. My question is will I get better audio for 5.1 with the optical or if I connect the digital coaxial cable to the Bose base unit?

[ananthubinu]

Can I connect my tv spdif out to my soundbar's coaxial input, is there any problem for that connection?

[jorgedominguez]

Digital coaxial is best, and I'm saying this because I just bought my first HDMI Cable because I wanted to watch on my TV what I was watching on my Cell Phone, so I follow the steps connected them where they needed to be connect, went to the Smart TV and went to the inputs are, and made sure that I put in at the right spot, well guess what? It did not work, and did the same thing and another Smart TV I have and guess what it did not work either, believe me I tried and I tried and I tried then I gave up HDMI Cable it's a piece of crap, period

[dimuborgir]

so what to use with z906 speakers? to stay on 6chanel direct to pc or to use optical toslink cable?