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RE: Got the recommended cleaning procedure

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on October 29, 2017 at 06:59:42

In Reply to: Got the recommended cleaning procedure posted by mr.bear on October 28, 2017 at 09:19:44:

> > Lifatec is the US outlet of a cool German firm marketing high-spec optical borosilicate glass fiber in the US < <

99.9% of all Toslink cables use plastic fibers, as that is the cheapest (and possibly most reliable for shorter distances) way to go. Plastic fibers have higher losses than do glass fibers, so glass is required for longer distances. One disadvantage to glass is it is obviously more brittle than most plastics (hence the name "plastic"). Borosilicate glass is especially tough and was used in the original Pyrex cookware (modern stuff is made in the US but uses tempered sodium glass - see Wikipedia for the history. All optical fibers can be damaged if bent in too sharp of a radius, but borosilicate glass is much better in this regard. It can be bent quite sharply without deforming (like plastics) or snapping (like ordinary glass).

I just looked at the Lifatec USA website, and they offer Toslink cables with both German glass fibers and Japanese plastic fibers. The plastic fiber is a single strand of 1mm PMMA (poly-methyl-methacrylate = acrylic or "Plexiglas"). In contrast the glass fibers are far thinner to allow best flexibility - there are 470 strands in the same diameter.

Another difference is with the ends. Plastic cable can be cut with just about anything, but if the end is not flat and smooth, there will be losses from the air gap between the fibers and the optical receiver. The glass fibers are so rigid that the ends are polished flat to within 1 micron. These thing make measurable differences - and if you can measure something you can be pretty darn sure you'll be able to hear it. (The converse is unfortunately not true.)

• Lifatec USA   (Open in New Window)

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