Decco and Touch: coaxial or optical?

To Doug Schneider,

Would you please give me some information about digital interconnects? I have the Peachtree Decco connected to a Squeezebox Touch by coaxial cable, which streams HD music files from the computer. Everything is going well. But I am just curious about the other connections. Is it better to connect the Peachtrree with the Squeezebox by TosLink cable? Which connection should be better in terms of sound quality?

Thanks,
Jim Xing

What a coincidence, I answered basically the same question on GoodSound! the other day, but there wasn’t any reference to specific products. I don’t have a Decco here, but from what I can tell it supports USB, coaxial, and optical (TosLink) digital connections. But your Touch only supports coaxial and optical, so you must use one of those two. Which connection is better has a lot to do with the implementation of the connection, so that will depend on the design of each unit, but, in general, audiophiles and engineers tend to feel that the coaxial connection is the better of the two due to inherently lower jitter. On the other hand, there’s no substitute for trying. If you can, get your hands on a TosLink cable. I recommend slipping it into your system and listening for a difference. If you hear no difference, or the sound gets worse, rest assured that you have the best setup right now. If it’s better, then there’s no question which way to go. . . . Doug Schneider