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Mini Toslink Optical
Toslink Optical
AudioQuest Carbon Digital Optical Cable
As low as £119.00 £99.17
SKU
AQ Carbon Optical
Lifetime
New
24 hours
AudioQuest Carbon Digital Optical cable is constructed with Narrow-Aperture Synthetic Fibers and precision polished fiber ends all contained within a black/Gray woven weave jacket.
Please note: this cable comes with a 3.5mm mini Toslink adaptor attached to one end. Please remove this to use a standard Toslink connection at both ends.
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AudioQuest Carbon Digital Optical Cable
Please note: this cable comes with a 3.5mm mini Toslink adaptor attached to one end. Please remove this to use a standard Toslink connection at both ends.
The audio frontier is all abuzz these days with the pleasure possible though HDMI, USB, FireWire® and Ethernet connections. However, these current generation digital technologies are only part of the story, just as the challenge of designing, manufacturing and choosing the best analog interconnects and speaker cables is as important as ever. The S/P-DIF (Sony® Philips Digital InterFace), which arrived in 1983 along with the CD, is still very much a part of our world today. S/P-DIF is transmitted through Digital Coax and Toslink fiber optics (EIA-J), making them still some of the most important cables in electronic entertainment.
While, thanks to HDMI, Toslink is not so often used to connect a DVD player to an A/V receiver, Toslink connectors are common on cable-boxes, TV sets, subwoofers, all sorts of products. And now, the 3.5mm Mini Optical connector, also somewhat incorrectly known as Mini-Toslink, is everywhere … from the 3.5mm dual-purpose headphone jack on a Mac laptop, to inputs on some of the finest portables.
For these many reasons, AudioQuest has refined and renewed our line of serious high performance OptiLink cables. All models and all lengths are now available Toslink to Toslink and Toslink to 3.5mm Mini Optical.
When the question is “how can a fiber-optic cable change the sound?” … the answer is easier to explain than for almost any other type of cable. If the light source were a coherent laser, firing into a vacuum, all the light would stay straight, arriving at its destination at the same time. Even if the LED light source in a Toslink system were coherent, the light entering a fiber-optic cable is scattered and dispersed by imperfections and impurities in the fiber. This can be measured as a loss of amplitude … but amplitude is not the problem, a 50% true loss would have no effect on sound quality.
The problem is that the dispersed light does get through the cable, but only after it has taken a longer path, like a pool ball bouncing off the side-rails, causing it to arrive later. This delayed part of the signal prevents the computer charged with decoding this information from being able to decode properly, or even at all. The inability to decode shows first at higher frequencies (not audio frequencies, this is a mono stream of digital audio information), so reduced bandwidth is a measurable signature of light being dispersed by a fiber. The punch line: The less dispersion in the fiber, the less distortion in the final analog audio signal presented to our ears.
There is another serious dispersal mechanism in the Toslink system. The fiber is a relatively huge 1.0mm in diameter, and the LED light source is also relatively large, spraying light into the fiber at many different angles. Even if the fiber were absolutely perfect, the signal would be spread across time because light rays entering at different angles take different length paths and arrives with different amounts of delay.
The almost complete solution to this problem is to use hundreds of much smaller fibers in a 1.0mm bundle. Because each fiber is limited as to what angle of input can enter the fiber, there is far less variety, and far less dispersion over time. This narrow-aperture effect is similar to how a pin-hole camera can take a picture without a lens … by letting in light at only a very limited range of angles, a picture can be taken, whereas removing the lens from a wider aperture would make photography impossible. Less light gets through a multi-fiber cable, but the light that does get into the fibers comes out within in a much smaller time-envelope.
So there is one problem, the dispersion of light across time … and two avenues towards a better result: less dispersion in the fiber (better polymers and ultimately quartz), and less dispersion by filtering the input angle. How simple is that! Listen and enjoy.
Specification :
- 19 Narrow-Aperture Synthetic Fibers
- Low-Jitter (Digital Timing Errors)
- Precision Polished Fiber Ends
- 3 meter and above In-Wall Rated PVC
- Mini-Toslink adaptor provided
About AudioQuest
AudioQuest has been the largest cable supplier to the high-end specialist market for many years. AudioQuest is sold in several hundred outlets in the US and in over sixty countries. Bill Lowe (Founder) is especially pleased that this success has been possible despite his insistence that the foundation of the company, and the foundation of AudioQuest marketing, must be the performance of the product. In the audio world, many professionals have learned that it is not always convenient to listen to the products they sell … they might learn something they don’t want to know! Bill has always understood the challenge of basing the existence of AudioQuest on the performance of the product. However, to Bill, this is the only reasonable way to do business and the only acceptable way to combine his passion for music (and all things high performance), with his need to make a living.
Specification :
- 19 Narrow-Aperture Synthetic Fibers
- Low-Jitter (Digital Timing Errors)
- Precision Polished Fiber Ends
- 3 meter and above In-Wall Rated PVC
- Mini-Toslink adaptor provided
UK Delivery
1. We use Royal Mail 1st Class Services as a Standard Postage Option
Orders received before 4.30pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) are usually dispatched the same day by FIRST CLASS post (unless premium postal or timed courier services are selected), subject to stock availability. Over 98% of our orders are usually delivered the next working day including Saturdays.
Standard delivery is usually within 2-3 working days, although 98% of all orders are delivered the next working day including Saturdays . In extreme cases, such as delivery to the Highlands and Islands, this may take 3 days.
All items are fully insured and come with an invoice from Futureshop.co.uk. We use the Royal Mail for delivery of small packages and DPD or Interlink Express for items that weigh over 2KG. Items over 2KG are fully insured and will usually be delivered within 48 hours of placing your order Monday to Friday subject to stock availability. For International orders, we use FedEx Services where customers have selected this option.
Please note, special orders for non-standard cable lengths or custom-made cables may be subject to longer delivery time-scales. This may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
We offer 'Free UK delivery on orders over £99' subject to the following terms & conditions:
- Applies only to orders with £99 or more of items (including VAT at the UK rate), at FutureShop.co.uk
- Free Delivery on orders over £99 utilises Royal Mail First Class postal service for items weighing under 2KG. For items weighing over 2KG, we use DPD next working day services which deliver from 9.00am to 6pm within mainland UK (excludes Royal Mail Special Delivery Services and timed next day delivery services by UK Mail).
- Applies only to deliveries to addresses within mainland UK and Northern Ireland addresses. Applies only to orders that are to be delivered to a single Mainland UK delivery address.
- You will not be eligible for free delivery on your order if any items are cancelled or returned for a refund, bringing the total order amount below £99. Where items are returned, the refund due will be the cost of the item less any postage costs.
- We reserve the right to change or discontinue 'Free delivery on orders over £99 promotion at any time.
- FREE DELIVERY FOR ORDERS OVER £99 OFFER DOES NOT APPLY TO TRADE CUSTOMERS.
Free Delivery on orders over £99 utilises Royal Mail First Class postal service for items weighing under 2KG. For items weighing over 2KG, we use DPD or Interlink Express next working day services which deliver from 9.00am to 6pm within mainland UK.
Free Delivery for orders over £99 excludes Royal Mail Special Delivery Services and timed next day delivery services by DPD or Interlink Express.
2. Special Delivery UK - Guaranteed Next Working Day
We have 99.9% of the UK covered With Royal Mail Next Day Special Delivery. We guarantee delivery to most UK addresses by 1pm the next working day. This includes Northern Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey. Some places take longer to deliver to but we still guarantee delivery within three working days by 5.30 PM.
For the Next Day Special Delivery service, orders must be received by futureshop.co.uk by 4.30pm weekdays. Orders after the 4.30pm deadline cannot be guaranteed for same day dispatch.
Please note, Royal Mail Special Delivery for next working day may not be possible where non-standard cable lengths are ordered. If this is the case, the item will be shipped via The Royal Mail Special Delivery service as soon as the cable is custom made.
For orders weighing over 2KG, we reserve the right to ship items using Next Day Pre-Noon Courier Services where Royal Mail Special Delivery option has been selected.
3. Channel Islands & Northern Ireland
We accept orders from all Channel Islands including Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey and Sark. Unless you select a premium service, Items weighing under 2KG are delivered using our standard UK delivery option above. For items weighing over 2KG, a surcharge may be applied for all deliveries to the Channel Islands as well as Northern Ireland.
European Countries
Deliveries to EU member states are subject to 20% VAT. We offer the following shipping services:
- Royal Mail First Class International Untracked Airmail Services - Items are usually delivered within 10 working days.
- Royal Mail First Class International Tracked Airmail Services - Items are usually delivered within 3 to 7 working days.
- DHL Express International - Items are usually delivered within 24 to 48 hours. DHL orders must be received by 3:30pm for next day service to most destinations in Europe
- Federal Express International Priority - Items are usually delivered within 24 to 48 hours. FedEx orders must be received by 3.00pm for next day service to most destinations in Europe
- Federal Express International Economy - Item are usually delivered within 48 to 72 hours
Worldwide - Excluding UK & Europe
Deliveries outside of the EU are not subject to 20% VAT and so the 20% tax on items is automatically deducted when you login or register.
We offer the following shipping services:
- Royal Mail First Class International Untracked Airmail Services - Items are usually delivered within 15 working days.
- Royal Mail First Class International Tracked Airmail - Items are usually delivered within 10-15 working days.
- DHL Express International - Items are usually delivered within 48 hours. DHL orders must be received by 3:30pm in order to ship items the same day, subject to stock availability.
- Federal Express International Priority - Items are usually delivered within 48 hours. FedEx orders must be received by 3.00pm in order to ship items the same day, subject to stock availability.
Where the actual weight of the package significantly exceeds the shipping cost charged on orders, we may write to you for an additional shipping charge. For larger orders, items may be shipped in multiple packets.
Customer Reviews
5 /5.0 of 3 Reviews
Worth it if you have the higher end gear...
Allan
23 May 2023
Verified Buyer
Cannot fault this cable. It was bought to connect my Audiolab CD Transport to my Hugo 2. A definite improvement over the £50 Chord cable I had, and I needed the Chord for another application, and I wanted an improvement... I got one.
Optical cable? My first impressions were "less harsh, sounds clean". How this happens in an optical cable, I cannot explain. The sound stage is awesome, the clarity is awesome, and the instrument separation is awesome. It is definitely worth the money (given I expect to use it for 10+ years).
Here's a weird one, though, maybe it makes sense to some. Moving the cable around changes the top end, so it's definitely worth planning out the route your cable takes, as making too much of an angle/twist does degrade the sound.
Buy and enjoy :)
Optical cable? My first impressions were "less harsh, sounds clean". How this happens in an optical cable, I cannot explain. The sound stage is awesome, the clarity is awesome, and the instrument separation is awesome. It is definitely worth the money (given I expect to use it for 10+ years).
Here's a weird one, though, maybe it makes sense to some. Moving the cable around changes the top end, so it's definitely worth planning out the route your cable takes, as making too much of an angle/twist does degrade the sound.
Buy and enjoy :)
Not cheap, but a worthwhile upgrade
James Rollin
27 Jun 2022
Verified Buyer
I was recently given a second-hand Sony soundbar, and because I'd run out of HDMI sockets on my TV, I used its 'Toslink' output to hook it up instead. I purchased AudioQuest's cheapest 'Pearl' cable to see how it sounded.
Having 'proved the concept', I recently upgraded to this 'Carbon' cable, and I could instantly hear a difference. The sound of the soundbar is now warmer and smoother and less 'toppy', and I have also found that I can turn its volume down by a good few notches and still achieve a comfortable listening level. I can therefore recommend this cable as a worthwhile upgrade.
And great service from Futureshop, as always.
Having 'proved the concept', I recently upgraded to this 'Carbon' cable, and I could instantly hear a difference. The sound of the soundbar is now warmer and smoother and less 'toppy', and I have also found that I can turn its volume down by a good few notches and still achieve a comfortable listening level. I can therefore recommend this cable as a worthwhile upgrade.
And great service from Futureshop, as always.