Optical Cable

[overduedub]

Just bought a Sonos Sound Bar and set it up with the included optical cable. Is it worth upgrading the cable? If so suggestions on a different cable. Thanks

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[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by overduedub

Just bought a Sonos Sound Bar and set it up with the included optical cable. Is it worth upgrading the cable? If so suggestions on a different cable. Thanks

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Optical cable cannot process HD quality audio. Your Blu-ray audio will be output at DVD bitrate audio. In other words, you lose a lot of sound detail and fidelity through optical cabling.

Then again, you are using a sound bar. It's likely that the detail and fidelity won't be very accurate anyhow.

[overduedub]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Optical cable cannot process HD quality audio. Your Blu-ray audio will be output at DVD bitrate audio. In other words, you lose a lot of sound detail and fidelity through optical cabling.

Then again, you are using a sound bar. It's likely that the detail and fidelity won't be very accurate anyhow.

Unfortunately optical is my only option with this soundbar. Sounds OK to me but bummed I didn't know this before I bought into the Sonos system. Is there any known workaround? Thanks

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[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by overduedub

Unfortunately optical is my only option with this soundbar. Sounds OK to me but bummed I didn't know this before I bought into the Sonos system. Is there any known workaround? Thanks

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Is it LITERALLY the ONLY type of connection on the back of it? Nothing else at all? If so, then there is no workaround. Optical cabling cannot transfer information fast enough to handle HD audio streams and nothing else can connect. Even if you were to find some type of conversion cable to work in conjunction with the optical cable, there would still be a bottleneck through the optical cable. I doubt anything exists that can bypass this... unless someone knows if there is an HDMI cable with one end as an optical port? I'm guessing even that is still limited by either the optical port itself or the hardware of the speaker since they designed it with only optical in mind anyhow.

However, like I said, since it is a soundbar anyhow, even if you were outputting HD audio, so much of the sound detail and fidelity would get lost and cancelled out by audio waves bouncing all over the various surfaces in your viewing area anyways that it probably doesn't really matter.

Sorry if this seems like a harsh reality check, but I don't sugar coat the truth when it comes to the lack of quality experience offered by soundbars compared to even a mediocre HTIB surround sound speaker setup.

[bigshot]

The difference between "HD audio" through HDMI and PCM through optical is negligible... frequency extension beyond the range of human hearing and a noise floor far beyond the ambient room noise in the average living room. Even if you could hear it, it would never be audible using a sound bar. Small speakers like that can't put out ultrasonic frequencies, and the signal to noise in the amp of the sound bar is likely even worse than PCM.

Audiophiles make a bigger deal about stuff they can't hear than the things they can. Worry about placing your sound bar at ear level without obstructions in front or to the sides. Work the tone settings on your TV to get the best out of the sound bar that you can. That will make much more difference than the cable you use.

[overduedub]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Is it LITERALLY the ONLY type of connection on the back of it? Nothing else at all? If so, then there is no workaround. Optical cabling cannot transfer information fast enough to handle HD audio streams and nothing else can connect. Even if you were to find some type of conversion cable to work in conjunction with the optical cable, there would still be a bottleneck through the optical cable. I doubt anything exists that can bypass this... unless someone knows if there is an HDMI cable with one end as an optical port? I'm guessing even that is still limited by either the optical port itself or the hardware of the speaker since they designed it with only optical in mind anyhow.

However, like I said, since it is a soundbar anyhow, even if you were outputting HD audio, so much of the sound detail and fidelity would get lost and cancelled out by audio waves bouncing all over the various surfaces in your viewing area anyways that it probably doesn't really matter.

Sorry if this seems like a harsh reality check, but I don't sugar coat the truth when it comes to the lack of quality experience offered by soundbars compared to even a mediocre HTIB surround sound speaker setup.

I appreciate the straight forward apporch. There are Ethernet ports but those are for connectability to an internet source. I guess I will contact Sonos and see what my options are if any.

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[overduedub]

Originally Posted by bigshot

The difference between "HD audio" through HDMI and PCM through optical is negligible... frequency extension beyond the range of human hearing and a noise floor far beyond the ambient room noise in the average living room. Even if you could hear it, it would never be audible using a sound bar. Small speakers like that can't put out ultrasonic frequencies, and the signal to noise in the amp of the sound bar is likely even worse than PCM.

Audiophiles make a bigger deal about stuff they can't hear than the things they can. Worry about placing your sound bar at ear level without obstructions in front or to the sides. Work the tone settings on your TV to get the best out of the sound bar that you can. That will make much more difference than the cable you use.

This makes me feel a bit better. I have the sub and 2 Sonos 5s as my rears. It sounds super good to me in my tiny living room. Thank you

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