Audio cable/connections advice

JasX

Hi All,

Am getting a Sky box delivered tomorrow and will be looking to hook it up to my existing 5.1 speaker system, have a number of options and was wondering if any of you who know their audio stuff had any comments.

Current Kit:

1x PC with Bluray player outputting sound via a creative X-Fi sound card (optical out or direct 6 channel)

1x Apple TV box (Optical output or Stereo)

(Future) 1x Sky box (should have optical output, not known if it'll have digital coax out too)

I have a Logitech Z-5500 speaker system with the following inputs
Optical in, Digital Coax in, Direct 6 channel in/Stereo in (one socket with a switch to select mode) and an auxillary 3.5mm input.

Am pondering the best way to connect it all up.

One option would be take the optical outputs from each and use some kind of optical switch, are they any good? I assume this'll give me the best quality sound and be less suceptable to issues with cable quality?

Drawback of the above is i'd not be able to switch the sound over with the remote control which I could do if i used a different input for each say Digital coax for the Sky+HD box (can't confirm if it has one) AND optical for the PC and stereo for Apple (which i understand doesn;t really do anyything above 'DTS' and not proper 5.1 anyway OR optical for the apple TV and direct 6 channel for the PC?

If the Sky box doesn't have digital coax and I need to use optical for that might prove a little problematic with the other 2....

OK_Sauce

Due to lack of optical inputs on my amp I use one of these.
Optical to coax cnverter

Works really well!

JasX

OK_Sauce wrote: »

Due to lack of optical inputs on my amp I use one of these.
Optical to coax cnverter

Works really well!

Thanks, I had seen those too, wasn't sure if they were any good or any better/worse than optical combiners/switchers... would certainly be more convenient in my setup

fwor

I'd beware the cheap optical switches - the one that I looked at did not inspire me with any confidence that it could either line up the connectors consistently, nor be reliable when subject to any amount of actual use.

If it were my kit, I'd go 6-channel direct from the PC, Optical from Apple TV, and be prepared to buy an optical to coax converter for the Sky box if it doesn't have coax digital out.

You might find this is a bit of a compromise with the PC's sound quality because the decoding and D-A is being done in a more electrical noisy environment, but you ~probably~ wont be able to hear any difference