The stagnation of Toslink and why HDMI took over

[Dawnshine Wonder 4,554]

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.

 

 

[Espy 4,912]

My tinfoil hat is on, so I'll say it intentionally got "left behind" by Toshiba for business reasons because Toshiba is a founding member of the HDMI Forum, which initially consisted of Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Maxell, Philips, Silicon Image (Lattice Semicondictor), Sony, Thomson (Technicolor SA/Vantiva SA), and Toshiba.

And because HDMI involves a lot of licensing, there's lots of money to be made. I'm sure they've all made bucketloads of money from it. Everyone is scratching each other's backs basically.

[Dawnshine Wonder 4,554]

8 hours ago, Espy said:

My tinfoil hat is on, so I'll say it intentionally got "left behind" by Toshiba for business reasons because Toshiba is a founding member of the HDMI Forum, which initially consisted of Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Maxell, Philips, Silicon Image (Lattice Semicondictor), Sony, Thomson (Technicolor SA/Vantiva SA), and Toshiba.

And because HDMI involves a lot of licensing, there's lots of money to be made. I'm sure they've all made bucketloads of money from it. Everyone is scratching each other's backs basically.

That is what it comes down to, plus there is not enough demand in the market for fiber optic to be invested like that.

But some technical experts, like Paul McGowan at PS Audio mentioned the unfortunate truths of this, Sony and Philips developed the SPDIF protocol, so technically they were responsible for the stagnation of Toslink, not Toshiba. Fiber optic is used in low latency and high bandwidth data transmission in internet, Toslink or some technology like it, could easily be updated for high end audio, and it would work better for the reasons that were discussed. And while Toslink cannot do two way communication, speakers and headphones do not need it. Some Hifi enthusiasts would much rather a signal be more stable and not risk damage to their equipment than have everything fed through a single cable.