The stagnation of Toslink and why HDMI took over

[Dawnshine Wonder 4,487]

I wish Toslink got updated to support modern audio formats, the idea of using fiber optic was not flawed, its stagnation is what kept it from being the gold standard of digital audio today. It works fine for stereo setups, but if you get into high end surround sound then this is where its limitations become obvious. I'm a big fan of fibre optic as it's immune to some of the problems you would get on other connector types like ground loop or handshake issues you may experience with HDMI or USB. Many people assume that just because it's digital it is immune to electrical noise from the system, but it's not. Interference in an analog system manifests itself as static or sound distortion, but interference with 1's and 0's make it harder for error correction systems to compensate for and you may end up with interruptions or glitches as a result. And it's not only ground loop that is the issue with audio setups, poor quality power systems in USB in the worst case can damage your device, and I would assume the same is true for HDMI as there is no galvanic isolation system between one device to another. Fiber optic uses light to transmit the data, therefore has the ideal protection against things like that.

From a theoretical standpoint, there is literally no reason why Toslink could not be updated to support Dolby Atmos, Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio lossless 7.1 surround sound, as well as DSD 512. All it would require is a change of the SPDIF design and perhaps some small changes to the physical construction of the Toslink cable itself.