what exactly is an optical cable and what does it do?

Answer 1

An optical cable is a connection that allows for transfer of audio signals for home theater and for cable/phone transmissions underground from providers. This cable differs from standard audio and video cables in that it is a transparent cable, wrapped with insulation that transmits light for its signal as opposed to sound waves. Think of some spy/military movies that you have seen, and those cool little cameras that they use to slide into small spaces and look into rooms - those are fiber optic cameras. The cool thing about these cables is that they transmit signal using a light based signal - you will see a Red light coming from the output of your device. This is your audio signal. You connect the Fiber Optic output of your source (DVD, Satellite, etc) to your surround receiver's input and this is how you get Dolby Digital, DTS, etc. Standard analog audio cables do not allow for enough bandwidth/information to transmit digital audio so this is where FIber Optic cables come into play.

If you have high definition devices they will have a Fiber Optic output for sound to go to a surround sound receiver. DVD, Satellite and Cable Boxes and HDTVs most all have Fiber Optic outputs to give you digital surround capabilities.

I hope this helped.

Answer 2

I use optical cables and the quality difference is noticeable... For me anyway....
The reason being is that I have to run the cable behind my PC desk to reach the amp and there are a lot of electrical cables behind my PC desk which would cause interference to my audio lead. I get a better bass, and what seems to be a higher treble (basically wider bandwidth) with optical.

Try this :-
Turn you amp full volume with nothing playing and you'll hear a hiss, maybe a slight hum or buzz, even the odd crackle through your speakers.

Now do the same with an optical lead and most of that noise will be gone.....

There are 2 types of "digital leads", Optical & Coaxal. Both do the same thing but have different connectors... There are many debates about which is better, ie Optical vs Coaxal, but personally speaking, any kind of digital connection is 10 fold better than any analogue type cable.

I use Optical for my PC to Amp, and coaxal for my DVD to Amp.

Many audio heads prefer coax to optical but we are talking real audio heads here (I see thier point) but you'll need specilist equipment just to be able to measure the difference.

Go for either one and do it over an analogue cable....

Answer 3

You should also be aware that digital audio signals can also be carried by wire in the form of coaxial cable (similar to the cable for cable TV). Some equipment has both optical and coax connections for digital audio, and you can use either one, they produce the same result. Coax cable is usually cheaper, and optical offers no real advantages. My audio connection is through 30 feet of coax cable. Try finding an optical cable that long.

Answer 4

An optical cable is usually referring to a digital audio cable used to transmit digital audio encoded for surround sound like from a movie, high definition programming or a video game.

An optical cable is also known as a Toslink cable to describe the type of connector it uses. Most people will use this cable to connect from their DVD player, game console or digital cable receiver to their AV receiver. This would give you surround sound.

Digital audio provides higher quality audio than analog (red/white RCA) cables. Also, the red/white RCA cables only provide you stereo, where digital audio cables can provide you up to 7.1 channels for surround sound.

Answer 5

instead of electricity going down it, light goes along it, like a fibre optic xmas tree.
this light is pulsed, and the rate of the pulses, is decoded at the other end, to give say, a tv picture, or digital information.
even a phone line isnt real words vibrating along the wire, its electric pulses, decoded by a microphone, and re assembled by a speaker. Its not like tin cans/string, where it realy is the actual vibration.
it is used for, internet connections, phone lines, is the "cable" in cable tv (ntl/telewest), hi fi speaker wire, and of course, fibre optic xmas trees.

Answer 6

it connects your eye ball to your brain, it lets you "see"