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I try to stay away from optical ICs and toward coax, but I recently put a Squeezebox in my system and need to connect to my Bel Canto DAC2 with an optical cable (it has one coax and one optical and the coax was taken by my cd player). I use the Squeezebox to stream wav files from a server wirelessly to my stereo; since I don't compress the files, it's essentially like using a cd transport.

I auditioned a Radio Shack cheap cable, a Kimber OPT1, which is about $80, and a similarly priced AQ Optilink1. I also compared the Optilink3 to my Illuminations DV-60 coax. Main recordings were Patricia Barber's "If I Were Blue" from Verse and Diana Krall's "A Case of You" from Live in Paris. I was mainly looking for detail. The Barber recording has an acoustic guitar solo in which, on better systems, you can hear Neal Alger sigh, as well as varying levels of finger noise on the strings and fretboard. The Krall number is a solo encore in which pedal noise is audible as well as varying levels of audience noise and ambience from the hall.

The Optilink 3 easily outperformed the others in conveying that detail. It was indistinguishable from the Illuminations coax, which many people use as a reference digital cable. Perhaps it is that it was the only multi-fiber cable among the optical ones.

I did not trial it against the Optilink 5, which at $450, is way out of my price range.

Product Weakness:	pricey
Product Strengths:	great detail

• AudioQuest Optilink 3 Cable - JayNYC 19:55:13 10/02/06 (1)
  In Reply to: REVIEW: AudioQuest Optilink 3 Cable posted by mschlack on September 24, 2006 at 12:53:24:

  Hi. Would you be willing to evaluate the following cable
  http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1163714249
  against the Audioquest Optilink 3 if I bought the cable and sent it to you?

  I already have my Squeezebox2 connected via Virtual Dynamics Master Coax
  (http://www.stereotimes.com/cable031105.shtml)
  to my Benchmark DAC1, and now also want to connect it via toslink to my Parasound AVC-2500 for surround sound listening, and would love to know what you think of these inexpensive glass cables. I am already using these glass cables from DVD player to pre-pro.

  
  
  

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  • Re: AudioQuest Optilink 3 Cable - Ted Smith 22:02:15 10/02/06 (0)
    In Reply to: AudioQuest Optilink 3 Cable posted by JayNYC on October 2, 2006 at 19:55:13:

    Howdy

    My local Audioquest dealer was happy to loan me Optilink 3 cables to evaluate on my system for as long as I needed. You might check with yours.

    -Ted
    
    

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