Cable Asylum: REVIEW: AudioQuest Optilink 3 Cable by mschlack

Model:	Optilink 3
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$200
Description:	1m multi-fiber Toslink optical digital IC
Manufacturer URL:	AudioQuest
Manufacturer URL:	AudioQuest

Review by mschlack ( A ) on September 24, 2006 at 12:53:24
IP Address: 71.243.96.171

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for the Optilink 3

I try to stay away from optical ICs and toward coax, but I recently put a Squeezebox in my system and need to connect to my Bel Canto DAC2 with an optical cable (it has one coax and one optical and the coax was taken by my cd player). I use the Squeezebox to stream wav files from a server wirelessly to my stereo; since I don't compress the files, it's essentially like using a cd transport.
I auditioned a Radio Shack cheap cable, a Kimber OPT1, which is about $80, and a similarly priced AQ Optilink1. I also compared the Optilink3 to my Illuminations DV-60 coax. Main recordings were Patricia Barber's "If I Were Blue" from Verse and Diana Krall's "A Case of You" from Live in Paris. I was mainly looking for detail. The Barber recording has an acoustic guitar solo in which, on better systems, you can hear Neal Alger sigh, as well as varying levels of finger noise on the strings and fretboard. The Krall number is a solo encore in which pedal noise is audible as well as varying levels of audience noise and ambience from the hall.
The Optilink 3 easily outperformed the others in conveying that detail. It was indistinguishable from the Illuminations coax, which many people use as a reference digital cable. Perhaps it is that it was the only multi-fiber cable among the optical ones.
I did not trial it against the Optilink 5, which at $450, is way out of my price range.

Product Weakness:	pricey
Product Strengths:	great detail

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Odyssey Stratos
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	B&K Ref 30
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Project .12
Speakers:	B&W 703
Cables/Interconnects:	AQ, Kimber
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	jazz, blues, rock, folk, classical
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster 250
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner