Old thread, but Ill resurect it only cause i did some comparison...
Toslink sounds better...
Toslink is PURE sound. There is no bits of energy its just light. Literally!
From what I have read, you have a Digital converter on both ends, one sending and one recieving the light pulses.
This alone reduces ground noise, unusual distortion problems, maganetic interference from AC outlets and appliances.
HDMI is a wire and accumulates distortion much easier than Toslink. In fact many high end HDMI cables will have a small frequency trap on one end which looks like a barrell coupled around it. This filters out high frequency interferance from nearby applainces and magnetics. The circuits of a HDMI circuit dont send pulses of light, they send pulses of electricity which can and will become distorted. Also HDMI is much more prone to lower Sound Quality levels depending of the type of circuitry and quaility thereof used at each end. Toslink uses a proprietery Toshiba technology which turns all the electricity into light.
To give you a better idea of just how much better Toslink is vs HDMI, the largest internet servers in the world, pay millions and millions of money to transport data all across the planet and want it done with the least amount of distortion and highest amount of speed and throughput ( as many people on a line at once as possible) They do this using fiber optics!
Now, You ask a question, why wont Toslink play Atmos or Dolby HD etc.. Cause the dacs that send and recive on each end of the fiber optic are not capable of sending and receiving that amount of data ( at this Time) through a Toslink cable) Toshiba made this technology and its upto them to uprade it. Has nothing to do with the plastic tube or the light. Its the dacs that send and recive the light.. In fact different types of clear material can be used to transport the light. Over certain distances and amplifer is needed to keep the lights bright enough and the cables need to stay rather staight and not kink to work properly.
HDMI can handle higher bit rates and more data due to the circuitry, NOT the wire it transports the data on! The quality of the data that Toslink transports is much higher... This is why Toslink is better..
If a circuit would be created that can handle the data similar to HDMI but on a Toslink or Optical cable, the new Optical transport would dominate and rule over HDMI easily...
Another hurdle is to have that new Optical circuitry become a standard for audio! That is no easy feat.. Many have been kicked to the curb, Beta was better than VHS.. Minidisc was better tha CD...Dat was better than cassette tape. etc etc... But the popular vote seemed to have won the majority and the better technologies sometimes go unseen and dissappear!
The name is a registered trademark of Toshiba, created from
TOShiba-LINK
There is another Optical format which is similar but not the same as Toslink. Its called Adat LightPipe. They are not compatible and use different technology, basically the bursts of light are not the same..
It will take a special team of engineers to UPGRADE toslink or to make a new Optical cable with circuits capable of sending and reciving Atmos and the newest Surround modes.
When that happens, it will be the worlds best audio transport..
In fact, the next step in the evolution of Computing will be Light! The largest companies in the world are testing motherboards which transport daya from cpu.s to your computer screen using optics, not metal tracing, on mother boards...
FYI...
