Hi. I ordered my Axiom system today and am trying to decide which cables to purchase. I searched the forums and there seems to a general consensus on the value of Blue Jeans cable. I went to their website but did not see an optical cable (to go from DVD to the receiver). Any recommendations on an optical cable?

Thanks.

5, doesn't your DVD player have a coaxial output?

absolutely as dirt cheap as possible. just my opinion on this, not wanting to start a flame war (or is it too late?). I (stressing the word I here) can not tell a difference between the cheap generic ebay cables, and the fancy monster cable my friend bought. Both were used w/ my pioneer vsx41, toshiba dvd player, and axiom speakers.

just my opinion!
Marcus

if i were gonna spend the money for decent ones id get glass ones. i hear those are better.

I a cheap optical wire for like $3 for 6ft to connect my computer to my receiver, sound good (I can't really tell when a digital connection has flaw)
I've also connected my dvd player to my receiver with good Canare coaxial cable and compared to a piece of crap regular RCA cable. I still can't tell a difference. May be my crap RCA cable has high quality or my ears are bad.

err scratch the glass thing... if you were spending quite a lot and had an idea setup.. maybe glass would be best but there seems to be some "medical grade" ones that arent too bad.

Thanks guys. I am a relative newbie to Home Theaters and I was under the impression that the optical connection was the 'best' since it is all digital and is essentially equivalent to a digital coax connection. Is this true?

I checked my DVD player. It has an optical out but not a co-ax digital output. It also has a 5.1 channel audio out and I now remember reading somewhere that this is better than the optical? Any advice on which connection I should use?

My receiver is HK AVR525 and the DVD player is Panasonic F-85.

Thanks.

Try Partsexpress.com. Decent stuff for decent prices.

Optical and coaxial both carry a digital signal. They just use different cables. Since the signal is digital, you don't need to worry about signal loss affecting the quality on the other end (unless the cable is damaged). Therefore, I'm partial to coaxial, since aren't fragile like the optical cables.

Using the 5.1 outs on your DVD player might or might not be better than running the single digital connection to your receiver. It just depends which unit has the better decoder. You might want to experiment to see which you think sounds better.

Okay 5, the F-85 has only an optical digital output. So far as interconnecting cables(besides speaker wire)go, you may wind up buying as many as ten, but you don't have to immediately buy any. You got a composite video cable(yellow)and stereo analog audio cables(red and white)with the F-85. So you can connect one to your TV and two to your 525 to have a basic picture and stereo sound.

From someplace such as Parts Express you can get an optical cable for digital sound(under$10)and a three cable component video connection for a better picture. If you're going to play multi-channel music on DVD-As at some time, you can get six analog cables for that at least theoretically higher resolution connection between the F-85 and the 525.

Johnbasham, badger98 and JohnK,
Thanks for the information. I ordered 3 optical cables from partsexpress at $7.50 a piece. Best Buy had the 'low end' AR cable at $25 and a 'high end' monster at $50 each!! This is an awesome forum. As JohnK suggested, I will use the RCA connections until the optical cables arrive.

The only thing left is the speaker wire. Looks like it has been extensively discussed in these forums. I will stop by home depot to pick up some speaker wire. My speakers are supposed to arrive today. I can't wait!

Regards