John,
Purchase of a Sonos system as a Christmas present to self and the subsequent liberation of my entire iTunes library through my big-rig (however did we manage before?) is causing the first major audio relapse I have suffered since the birth of one baby led to the boxing and storage of all the others.
B.C. (before children) I was an avid reader of Stereophile and HFN/RR and one thing I clearly recall is that Toslink was very much regarded as the red-haired child of digital interface standards. The conventional wisdom, if I recall, was ST, then Coax and if all else fails, Toslink.
However, I noticed in your reviews of both the SB3 and the Sonos system that you used Toslink to connect to your Levinson DAC. What, as J-10 used to say, is the hoopy-scoopy? Both units support S/PDIF over coax and I'm sure you had suitable cables on hand. Was this a sound quality choice or one of convenience? I notice that the Toslink cable you are using is pretty high-end (I believe it costs about $500) but haven't seen any reviews, in Stereophile or elsewhere (in fact I don't think there are any Toslink cable reviews in your online archives!?). Is that part of the picture here or just a red herring?
A related question. Your comment
Quote:
I was hard-pressed to hear much of a difference between the Levinson driven by the ZP80 receiving Apple Lossless Compressed or AIF files, and the original CDs from which I had ripped the tracks, as played back by the Class
John,
Purchase of a Sonos system as a Christmas present to self and the subsequent liberation of my entire iTunes library through my big-rig (however did we manage before?) is causing the first major audio relapse I have suffered since the birth of one baby led to the boxing and storage of all the others.
B.C. (before children) I was an avid reader of Stereophile and HFN/RR and one thing I clearly recall is that Toslink was very much regarded as the red-haired child of digital interface standards. The conventional wisdom, if I recall, was ST, then Coax and if all else fails, Toslink.
However, I noticed in your reviews of both the SB3 and the Sonos system that you used Toslink to connect to your Levinson DAC. What, as J-10 used to say, is the hoopy-scoopy? Both units support S/PDIF over coax and I'm sure you had suitable cables on hand. Was this a sound quality choice or one of convenience? I notice that the Toslink cable you are using is pretty high-end (I believe it costs about $500) but haven't seen any reviews, in Stereophile or elsewhere (in fact I don't think there are any Toslink cable reviews in your online archives!?). Is that part of the picture here or just a red herring?
A related question. Your comment