So optical > metal… My receiver has 3 Toslink inputs, so I got a Toslink and a Mini-to-Toslink cable from eBay. The Mini (optical) to Toslink is for my Airport Express, it’s pretty impressive that the thing actually has an optical output, it definitely justifies the $99 (I picked up 2 of them at the Barton Creek Apple Store the day after Thanksgiving, that was the only time I’d seen them on sale!!)
Anyway, the Monoprice guy sent me the wrong cable, he sent me a Mini-to-Mini optical cable instead of a Mini-to-Toslink one. I called him up, he immediately sent me a replacement, and asked me to just keep the other cable. Pretty good customer service, which explains his high marks at ResellerRatings.
Today I got my Toslink and RCA+S-Video cables in the mail. I went to hook up the Toslink cable, only to find out that the DVD player I got didn’t have an optical out, so off to Fry’s I went, and exchanged it with a different player. Got home, hooked it up, awesome sound! 🙂 The RCA+S-Video is for my TiVo, I can’t really tell if the video quality is better. I’m used to SAT TV, cable looks like crap to me no matter what.
I’m still waiting for 2 component video cables, and the mini to Toslink cable (I hope Mini-to-Toslink is the same as Toslink-to-Mini, which was what I bought, it should be, light goes both ways)…