Ozy, I'm with you (but I already have a decent picture of the technology, as many here do!). Josh, your statements are a testament to the adage: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

A conductor does NOT have to be "pure" or "gold" to effectively carry digital signals over reasonable distances without dropping *any* bits at digital audio transfer rates. Even plain old metal conductors like copper (complete with oxygen! Much cheaper than 'oxygen -free' $^), aluminum, and steel will have ample conductivity to reliably transmit datatstreams with minimal loss of signal strength and no dropping of bits. Optical connections are MUCH more sensitive to impurities, as any imperfections in the glass OR PLASTIC fiber (especially surface ones) can caused dropped bits.

You seem to have an idea that "pure hi-tech pricier optical" conenctors are better than "low-tech impure common metal coax" ones. Simply not true, although the facts and objective tests don't seem to sway you. OK, so be it. Just curious--do you have any type of scientific/engineering education? Many here do and they all refute your assertions. But you are indeedfree to maintain your position. That's why it's a forum! I just think it is important to not spread misinformation, and to refute it when found, so others who read posts here will have accurate information.

Last comment: Anyone who budgets 15% or more of their HT $$$ to cables is really shortchanging themselves by wasting it on wires instead of better equipment. As with digital audio, any run-of-the-mill coax connector is fine for transmitting digital signals for the 3-6 foot runs between components. Gold-plated connectors aren't even necessary (unless perhaps you live right by the ocean and leave your windows open!) as standard rca plugs have excellent contact characteristics. I've never had such a cable 'corrode' and give a bad connection. With speaker wire, the key issue is the gauge (thickness), with thicker being better as they actually carry a high-level signal. Factors such as metal quality ('single crystal' 'oxygen-free' 'hyper-pure copper' etc.) will not make a noticeable difference in audio quality for typical home applications, esp. if you're down to 10 or 12 gauge.

This thread has been entertaining, and I hope some of the facts are floating to the surface amidst the noise.

*Gack*! $350 for a "glass" optical cable! Direct proof that there's a sucker born every minute. (And a company willing to profit off their misconceptions.)

Reminds me of an urban legend:

"How much for a cable?"

"Three-fifty"

"OK, I'll take 2."

$^)

A couple points/questions, just my 2 cents, keeping in mind that in both examples, we're taking about a digital signal here...

1) Regarding Coax- how does the material's composition affect signal QUALITY? The resistivity of the material in question is the only concern here and that will simply reduce the signal strength- maybe that leads to a loss of data, but if there's a 'weak' high or low (aka 1 or 0), then your system sucks anyway. You get a loss of signal strength, nothing more. What is the frequency of the data being transferred? It ain't high enough to matter; Ohm's (the real law, mind you) will boil down into the simple linear fraction for the frequencies in question. If it was high enough to matter, the cable would need to be matched- like 75 ohm coax is matched to a cable TV box- even then you still will get losses. All materials have frequency-dependent resistivities, but the differences in that resistivity is significantly smaller than your decoder's 'gap' between a high and a low, so in the end it really doesn't matter.

Any RF people care to comment?

2) You get reflection on ALL cables, optical or coax. Optically, you get light-reflections due to defects, cracks, contaminants, etc. Coax? You get transmission-line reflections at EVERY material interface. So you buy a $5200 cable with platinum-plated connections and solid-gold wires? Well, since the resistivity of the materials is dissimilar, you get a reflection. The best cable would have the same material (or at least the same resistivity) at EVERY INTERFACE- this means the coax jacks, the cables, and not just the $90 gold-plated terminations. But it really doesn't matter that much because....

My point is that both have defects, and that's what error-checking is for. How effective is error checking? Consider the last time you DLed a 90MB game demo. Were there any bad bits in that? And this is through a ton of network hardware, probably over thousands of miles, instead of a 3' run from source to receiver.