April 26, 2014

  • Lifatec Silflex, Part 1

    We're gonna party like it's 1989! 25 years ago, I started reading about so-called digital-to-analog converters, DAC for short. Many mid-fi ads depicted the optical Tos-link connection. Dude, anything optical was infinitely cooler than wires! Alas, those into high-quality audio reported that the Tos-link was sonically inferior to regular 75-ohm coaxial digital.

    So all these years, I never bothered to play with Tos-link cables and connections. While the audiophiles went hog-wild for S/PDIF coxial and AES/EBU balanced digital connections, the Tos-link (and AT&T ST) languished. The silver lining about Tos-link's lack of popularity is that the cables tend to be affordable.

    Lifatec? That sounds like something out of an RPG! Supposedly, Lifatec are headquartered a few miles west of Syracuse, New York. So what do we have here?
    IMG_0732
    This is Lifatec's Silflex glass-fiber Tos-link cable. Supposedly, the fibers are made in Germany, but the rest of the product is manufactured here in the U.S. According to Lifatec's website, the retail price for a 3-foot Silflex (with regular Tos-link plugs at both ends) is $69.00. Yep, sixty-nine dollars. No, it's not as good as the other 69, but still.
    IMG_0733
    Though I'm skittish about breaking the glass fibers, the Silflex is light, pliable, and soft. And thank heavens, it comes in a white-colored jacket, infinitely better than the ubiquitous black! But uh, there's absolutely no writing on the jacket. Nothing indicates which way signal should flow. Or maybe, in a Tos-link optical cable, it doesn't matter which way the cable is oriented.