IME the BDA-1's coaxial inputs sound significantly better than the Toslink, with the Touch or anything else. Have used both, with varying grades of coaxial and Toslink cables; you should use a quality one, but don't have to get even close to ridiculous (e.g. Blue Jeans coaxial or average glass Tos is fine, you *will* hear plastic Tos). You should note that in the audiophile world Toslink is usually given attention/status below coaxial S/PDIF in almost all (more expensive) DACs. Because Toslink has been traditionally so cheaply implemented in source devices, and you can't really (externally) fix a bad source after the fact. The coaxial S/PDIF output on the Touch measures (and sounds) a lot better than you might expect from the price.
BDA-1 digital inputs in order of quality: AES/EBU......coaxial......Toslink.............USB. The dots represent IMO approximately relatively how far apart the quality is. :) If you have the BDA-2 then I presume the USB would be different, but on the BDA-1 it's only a last resort or for some convenience. The BDA's "metal" inputs are galvanically isolated, so the Tos doesn't even gain anything audible from that IME. But really, with all this DAC stuff, you have to try it yourself. For all I know my "custom" Touch PS is doing most of the good stuff re coax vs Tos from it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cfraser's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=48869 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=100955 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
