What Is A Toslink Cable?

Multiple audio cable choices are on the market.  One of the most prevalent used by consumers is a Toslink cable, also know as a optical cable.  The technical detail is that it is standardized optical fiber connection system, they’re used for linking components like CD players and DAT recorders.  A standard in digital video and audio is PCM, pulse code modulation and the Toslink was invented by Toshiba is the early 80′s to connect their recievers and CD players to recieve the PCM stream.  It became a common connector for most manufacturers CD players right after that, EIAJ optical being the standard name for them.

The bandwidth and application have a lot to do with what the cable will be made out of. Quartz glass optical fibers may be used occasionally, but most likely they will be made with either quality multistrand plastic optical fibers or cheaper 1mm plastic optical fiber. Toslink cables can run up to 10 meters in length, but are typically 5 meters or less. Anything longer than 10 meters and it is likely that a signal booster will be needed. Newer consumer electronics, however, can have Toslink cables that will run 100 feet or more. As audio cables go, the toslink cable has become very popular and you can find them at varying prices through many different manufacturers.

There’s another type of jack that goes by the name of mini-toslink jacks.  There are adapters on the market to connect the mini toslink to the regular Toslink cable.  The most common users of the mini-toslink jacks are Apple computers and portable mini disc players.

The audio signal from a Toslink cable was originally limited to 48 kHz at 20 bits, but has now been extended to support all modern formats. The only exceptions to this are DTS HD audio streams, TrueHD, and Dolby Digital Plus.

After Toshiba’s invention of the Toslink they’re now the standard in audio cables, to connect CD players and other things to the main component.  There are many manufacturers now so the name of Toslink describes the cable not related to Toshiba.  They’re highly available through retail brick stores and online, so if you need one it’s a easy search.