Although the standard is over thirty years old now, it has been refined quite a bit, and modern TOSLINK connections are as useful as ever. While that question could be a historical inquiry unto itself, here's the short version: when TOSLINK came out, it was overpowered for most people's needs, and by the time the average consumer was rocking an intense home theater, the TOSLINK cable had been eclipsed by the HDMI cable. What this means is that you’ll need an optical audio converter that accepts TOS-link cables What is the purpose of DAC? You won't find many modern devices with the MINI-TOSLINK connection, but some older laptops and computers sometimes had it — most notably MacBooks and iMacs. To be fair, this is a good entry-level option for those who just need to use a DAC in conjunction with two or three other devices.

Best Optical To RCA Converter - Sorboda Best Optical To RCA Converter - Sorboda

After cutting his teeth on tech writing at Lifehacker and working his way up, he left as Weekend Editor and transferred over to How-To Geek in 2010. The DONGJIAN device is an ideal solution for connecting your digital audio files to your home stereo or other audio system. Jason has over a decade of experience in publishing and has penned thousands of articles during his time at LifeSavvy, Review Geek, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. Just make sure that whatever you choose can properly take the digital optical signal from your Blu-ray player or satellite box and make it into an analog signal your old school sound system can play.

For the majority of consumer setups, there will be absolutely no discernible difference between audio quality when using an HDMI cable or a TOSLINK cable. Let's say, for example, you want to use your Blu-ray player as CD player, but don't want to have to turn your TV on to listen to those CDs. It uses the same fiber optic design and underlying standards, but the bulky standard TOSLINK connection is shrunk to a more slender 3. Remember, TOSLINK cables are fiber optic, and because the cables are either entirely plastic or plastic and glass, there is no electrical conductivity to transfer the ground loop interference to your speaker system.

Optical Audio Adapter | Sonos

This item is a 96KHz DAC Digital Optical Coax to Analog RCA Audio Converter Adapter with Fiber and Coax Cable. While you shouldn't be using excessive force to insert your optical cable, don't be surprised if the cable requires a bit more force than you would expect. DONGJIAN is an audio interface and analog output sound card that provides a great solution for connecting your computer to your home stereo or powered speakers.Your headphones can only produce sound when they are fed an analog signal from the DAC, which has been converted to digital. It is a perfect solution for people who want to access music from their computers, game consoles, or other digital media players using a high-quality DAC. Finally, while most devices have a little dog-door style assembling to protect the optical port, some have a little rubber plug. The optical audio port, also known as TOSLINK, can be useful for connecting older sound systems or linking devices like soundbars to TVs. Though this converter doesn’t feature a lot of accessories, and it cannot be used to boost headphones, it does have a two-year guarantee.

Optical to Phono Audio Converter Optical and Coax to 2x RCA Optical to Phono Audio Converter Optical and Coax to 2x RCA

Although HDMI has superseded TOSLINK as the all-in-one, higher-bandwidth solution for most consumers, the humble TOSLINK cable still has a place in the modern media center — if for no other reason than those rare moments it saves the day. You should connect the red and white audio cables from the converter’s output to the RCA jacks of the speaker. He's been in love with technology since his earliest memories of writing simple computer programs with his grandfather, but his tech writing career took shape back in 2007 when he joined the Lifehacker team as their very first intern.

This DAC is an external audio digital to analog converter, designed to solve the problem of inadequate sound quality of the computer audio output. If the Blu-ray player has a TOSLINK port, you can pipe out the audio through the optical port to your speakers or receiver.

What Is the Optical Audio Port, and When Should I Use It?

You'll find these on the back of computers, HDTVs, media receivers, and more, but hardly anyone uses them.The TOSLINK doesn't support these more demanding formats because of bandwidth and related limitations.