S/PDIF out OR Optical out

[Drone_21042]

You are clearly an idiot and a troll.

Thanks. Look, I may not be a recording engineer, but I am a mechanical engineer. My field is commercial construction, so I am not well versed on fiber optics save for what my father in law has shared with me (he used to be part owner of AussieCom). I enlisted my former classmate who is now a physics instructor and he knows quite a lot about the subject. He agrees with me and urged me to substantiate my claims.

A TOSLINK cable is a lump of two pieces of plastic--a clear inner covered in a protective outer. I carries the red light from a flickering LED which is modulated to send data.
Neither plastic nor light is affected in any way by magnetism or radio frequencies.

You are plain wrong about this, and it has been the principle source of our argument. I have been trying to tell you all along it is the medium in which the light travels in. Perhaps it is better understood in the words of Martin H. Weik - author of the Fiber Optics Standard Dictionary. Perhaps you will think he is an idiot and fuckwit, too...but he says:

While it is true magnetic fields do little to disturb lightwaves as a whole, it does play a measurable role during transmission. The magnetooptic effect, for example, is evident in fiber optics and can even be used as a sensor for sensing magnetic strength within the fiber optic medium itself. A plane lightwave propagating in a medium rotates and changes direction brought about by subjecting the medium to a magnetic field- similar to the Faraday effect. The magnetoopic effect can modulate a lightwave in a given material because many parameters at interfaces, such as the reflection and transmission coefficients, acceptance angles, refraction angles, transmission modes, and propogation velocities are dependant on the direction of propogation of the light relative to the interface surface.

If you're talking high end fibres with "yarns and strengthening agents" then it's possible that these could be affected by an immensely strong EM field--but, until that effect is enough to physically break the fibre, the light is still being transmitted and will result in a perfect signal at the receive end.

Fiber optic cables (not just the high end ones) are made by forming a blank through gas deposition- a chemical reaction that results in a synthetic silica/quartz coating. It's a permanent and an unavoidable product of its manufacture. Then it is drawn into a system to form another cladding and often this contains yarns and strengthening agents to protect the core. If fiber optics did not have cladding the light would not be force directed through the core- it would bounce all over the place. Some of the cladding, and it's impurities will be effected by electromagnetic fields and end up potentially contaminating the two communicators (as I was saying earlier). This is not what makes a Toslink cable exclusively prone to electromagnetic fields, because as you know, ANY cable can do that. The material itself can effect the way light is distributed from one end to the other, and that is unique to fiber optics and therefore it is NOT completely immune to the effects of EM and RF interference.

Fuss and bluster all you want. You said that TOSLINK cables can be affected by EMI. That's bullshit.

You seem so certain of this yet you are wrong. I'm sorry.

If you change your story and say that the equipment at either end of the fibre can be affected by EMI and RFI, that's obviously true. Any piece of electronics can be affected if the fields are strong enough. But that is NOT the same thing as the TOSLINK cable being affected by the interference.
In post number six of this thread you said that TOSLINK cables are vulnerable to EM but not RF. When you were called on this you started with some techno babble to justify your wrong statement.

I have not wavered in my argument. Read again. I have not been 'called' on anything.

Now you won't let it drop even though you are clearly and patently wrong. When I gave my credentials to discuss this you turned to personal insults.

Your 'credentials' read like chest beating and that's when it went from a debate to an argument. Furthermore, your credentials do not prove anything. I could be president of a nation, but that does not automatically make me an expert at government.

You're a fuckwit and a troll. I'm done. People can make up their own minds about the rubbish you're posting.

Yes, let's. I go back and read this thread and see where we BOTH acted like assholes. I'm big enough to admit that. What is interesting is that you insult me with this comment right after typing about how bad it was that I insulted you. A bit hypocritical, don't you think? Apparently, that wasn't enough because you come to my profile and insult me there, too! THEN you NEG REP me! I think that says a lot about your character. I, for the record, did not say anything nasty on YOUR profile nor would I even consider giving you neg rep. You and I were having a lively debate right here in this thread. A debate is healthy. Your reaction was not.