Optical cable or HDMI for sound?

by Dr. Prasad Joshi
(Nanded, Maharashtra, India)

I've recently bought A new Home Theater System - Yamaha RX-V667 & Dahlquist Satellite Speakers with Center and JBL's Cine SCS140 powered sub. I've connected everything properly and both AV is good.

However, one of the experts told me that unless I use Optical Fiber cable for connection I may not get optimum results for both sound and video.

I've connected HDMI DVD to the RX-V667 and video out directly from DVD to CRT TV. Pls justify how far optical cable is important?

---

Hi

In my opinion, I would stay with the connections you already have.

By connecting via optical or HDMI, you are sending the same digital audio data to the AV receiver to decode. There should be no difference in the sound you hear from your speakers. The digital data stream is received by the AV receiver and converted into analog audio for you to hear.

If you have a Blu-ray player rather than a DVD player, then HDMI will also be better because you will be able to use HD audio tracks which will sound better than standard 5.1 surround.

If you are still unsure, then the best thing to do is to test it for yourself. Connect your DVD player with both HDMI and optical connections, play a disc with audio (music is usually better to test with), and switch between the HDMI and optical inputs on your AV receiver using the remote control.

You will then be able to easily compare the sound via the optical and HDMI connections. My guess is they will sound the same to you.

All the best.

Paul (Site Editor)

Feel free to join in this discussion by adding your own comments below...