Optical or Coaxial?

[jerryan77]

I really don't know what's the different between optical cable and coaxial cable.
Anyway, my reciever pioneer vsx-d850s doesn have a optical input for DVD. There is only one coaxial input for DVD.

Does it mean Coaxial is better than optical?

[Apex]

Well, there are arguments both ways. I've found most people prefer coax though.

[spigidygak]

One advantage of coaxial is that you can run the wire for a longer distance. But optical is slightly better quality. . .

[mkivman]

For some reason, I thought I remember from my DVD player manual that optical output is at 48KHz, but coax optical is at 96KHz, so it implied that coax is better quality and that the optical stuff was more marketing hype. Somebody know if this is true?

[spigidygak]

Heh, I meant to say optical can be run for longer not coaxial. . . also I'm saying that optical is better marginally not much. For instance my situation with my minidisc deck and cd deck, optical works a lil' better some reason. Not sure why or how but its quite noticeable when I record a md on coax or optical.