SPIDF vs RCA

[ikissfutebol]

I am wondering what kind of an improvement I would hear by swapping the lone TV to surround sound receiver connection from white/red RCA to a TOSLINK/SPIDF connection? Xbox, Roku, and DVD player are all connected via HDMI to the TV. I understand that a crappy source will yield crappy output/sound regardless of connection. I am by no means and audiophile. My two goals would be less cabling and better sounding movies and games. My receiver was a rather good 5.1 home theater system a number of years ago when I got it on a huge discount (Best Buy gave teachers the employee discount). The little I have read is something along the lines of TOSLINK makes the receiver the device handling sound conversion where RCA was the original device. So.... if I understand correctly, would a 10ish year old receiver probably handle the audio better than a DVD player, Xbox 360, Roku 3, or a few years old Vizio? Side note- the receiver has options for optic (toslink/spidf) or the currently used RCA... no HDMI.

Any help here would be appreciated!

 

[jojoe42]

I am wondering what kind of an improvement I would hear by swapping the lone TV to surround sound receiver connection from white/red RCA to a TOSLINK/SPIDF connection? Xbox, Roku, and DVD player are all connected via HDMI to the TV. I understand that a crappy source will yield crappy output/sound regardless of connection. I am by no means and audiophile. My two goals would be less cabling and better sounding movies and games. My receiver was a rather good 5.1 home theater system a number of years ago when I got it on a huge discount (Best Buy gave teachers the employee discount). The little I have read is something along the lines of TOSLINK makes the receiver the device handling sound conversion where RCA was the original device. So.... if I understand correctly, would a 10ish year old receiver probably handle the audio better than a DVD player, Xbox 360, Roku 3, or a few years old Vizio? Side note- the receiver has options for optic (toslink/spidf) or the currently used RCA... no HDMI.

Any help here would be appreciated!

If everything is connected to your TV via HDMI and from the TV to the receiver using SPIDF/optical all your sources (i.e. Roku, Xbox etc.) will now play in proper surround as RCA cables DO NOT support 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. Also if you're playing lossless audio or Blurays it will allow the receiver/speakers to play in higher fidelity (higher quality) and as said before proper surround sound. Optical cables are pretty inexpensive, and we have one plugged into our old PS3; games and action movies rock in 7.1 definitely get one mate