Cheapest place to buy coaxial digital audio cables for my new amp?

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  XeSSiV on 19/11/2013 - 12:19

  Do you mean the fiber optic TOSLink cables? If so, then eBay really is your best bet. They're not cheap, but eBay has the cheapest ones available.

  Or, if I'm mistaken and you really mean the coax ones, try here
  http://www.cablechick.com.au/cables/digital-coaxial-audio-ca…

  • 

    Windows7forever on 19/11/2013 - 12:27

    I saw cable chick but their shipping kills it.
    No, I mean coaxial. I want to connect a cable from the coaxial output of my TV to my new sony amp so that I get surround sound decoding through everything connected to my tv e.g. xbox, pc, dvd, etc.

    • 

      XeSSiV on 19/11/2013 - 12:46

      Does your amp/tv have TOSLink? It might be a better/cheaper alternative perhaps? Have you looked into it?

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        Windows7forever on 19/11/2013 - 13:09

        +1

        I read somewhere that a standard RCA cable can double as a "coaxial cable". Lo and behold, it actually works!
        I won't need to buy this cable anymore. Everything sounds better through my TV now that I am running my large stereo speakers through the amp.
        My amp has TOSlink but not the TV, so I don't think I will be able to use this port.

      • 

        XeSSiV on 19/11/2013 - 14:10

        +1

        That's the OzBargain spirit! Well done :)

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  Windows7forever on 19/11/2013 - 12:26

  This one looks the best value for a quality 2m coaxial cable. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2m-Ultra-Premium-Coaxial-Coax-Dig…

  you can get cheap ones for $4 but they aren't good quality.

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  Windows7forever on 19/11/2013 - 12:32

  These guys seem reasonable and free shipping : http://www.selby.com.au/cables/coaxial-digital-cables.html

  Whoa, 10m for $17.95 is a bargain.

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  [Deactivated] on 19/11/2013 - 15:24

  +1

  For coaxial digital audio, the cheapest 75 Ohm VIDEO cable is what you should be looking for - and if you thought you'd never find a good use for the crappy yellow-plastic-plugged video cables that come with alot of electronics, you maybe do now. They work better than fine.
  For TOSLINK connections, also use the cheapest optical fibre cables you can get.

  Zeros and ones. If they're getting through, they're getting through.
  Even with the cheapest cables - coaxial or optical - I've read tests that show no discernable differences at well beyond domestic-length cable runs.

  Price-wise, you may well find cheaper than Ebay at some of the China stores. I can certainly remember seeing some very cheap optical cables at Tmart and Tinydeal, at one point when I went looking. Try Buyincoins as well - always good to check. Ebay is isn't always the cheapest option for everything. I been caught out on a few occasions.

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    Windows7forever on 20/11/2013 - 07:38

    Thanks for the reply, Tas.
    I have a bag full of old cables/speaker wire/adapters/connectors/etc which I would never throw out, they are so handy when you need them. This includes about half a dozen pairs of RCA cables which I always have a need for connecting up the multitude of devices to our TVs.

    It sounds like a bunch of marketing hyperbole if you ask me. These companies are marketing a coaxial cable as a necessary and dedicated species of cable, keeping it hidden from consumers that it is essentially just a modified/single RCA connector. Then there are different grades of "coaxial cable" to choose from depending on what type of "quality" you want. Reading some of the item descriptions and fancy language they use, you would be forgiven for thinking that the "superior cable" in question would lead you to the elusive pot of gold at the end of the proverbial home theater rainbow.

    I normally check both Ebay and DX/BiC because I find that often the latter are slightly cheaper due to fees involved with selling on Ebay.

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  pumpkinspice on 04/12/2013 - 15:54

  Glad you found this out.
  I was way too late in finding it out and actually spent around $100 on a useless 1.5metre monster cable.

  After I found this out, I went and bought some dirt cheap combo RCA cables where the video cable was very insulated, ripped off the L/R audio cables and voila, I have a 3 metre coax and 3 metre sub-woofer cable for less than $15 :D

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  Frankdb58 on 07/12/2013 - 10:29

  Not all coaxial cables are the same, some are rated at 50 ohms, some are 75 ohms whilst others are meant just for analogue sound.

  The major difference that an end user might experience in using the wrong cable can be more "noise". (in a picture this would show up as white flicker or stars on a black background, in audio it would be harder to define)

  Also, you will find that many of the "electronic manufacturer or china supplied cables" have little or no shielding and depending on the amount of "noise" in the vicinity of your equipment, spending more on a particular cable can be worth the investment!

  Finally cables and connections do age. I have seen hundreds of installations where a cable worked for 6 months, then starts to become intermittent and eventually fails!.

  Regards, Frank

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    _Bruce_ on 07/12/2013 - 11:13

    You are right about the wrong cable causing noise, but this doesn't matter for a digital signal, which is being discussed here. On a digital signal either the noise is low enough that there is no effect, or it is bad enough that it simply doesn't work.