Saturday, July 9, 2011

Optical Cables - Developing For The Past Decades

By Tyluroe Duhregen


Optical cables, also named as TOSLINK, are optical fiber cables designed primarily to carry audio signals between consumer audio equipments nowadays. Gadgets today such as DVD players and home theater systems generally have these digital optical outputs. They enable digital audio to stream from one source to a specific decoder, and then out to speakers. These cables deliver high quality audio every time.

S/PDIF standards have become the general standard for audio streaming. Gaming consoles and high definition multimedia players nowadays employ such sockets to enable high definition audio streams. Typically, audio signals go through decoders which then decodes these signals according to their formats. Because of this, high quality audio can be paired up with high definition videos and movies. Its speed has also greatly improved over the past years, now able to transmit signals even faster.

When it first came out in 1983, optical cables were only capable of carrying speeds of up to 3.1 Mbit per second. Today, they are able to have bandwidths of up to 125 Mbit per second, clearly showing that they indeed have evolved. Fibre optic cables are utilized.

Homes with home theaters generally use these cables alongside HDMI cables. Running from the source to their decoders, it then decodes the light signals and transfers them to the speakers. Originally designed to support 48KHz at 20-bit, this technology has quite developed for the past few years. These days, digital audio can support every audio format, including Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound technologies.

A lot of companies manufacture optical cables these days. Optical fiber cables are then coated with resin, with a plastic jacket around it to further strengthen the cables. These layers are not meant to interfere with the optics, since they only protect them. Typically, fibers are made out of plastic or glass, and are thin and transparent. As light is transmitted from one end to the other, they carry audio signals with them. Each end goes into optical audio ports in the decoder and in audio players or other electronics.

Computers today also utilize this interface in audio, as some audio cards today support 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setups. Home theaters are now possible to make, and is quite easy to setup, as well. External audio processors which can be easily hooked up to laptops and desktops can also be used, to easily upgrade your computer's capability to transmit high fidelity audio.

Investing in good cables and equipment can truly give you unparalleled audio experience.




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