AmazonBasics CL3 Rated (In-Wall Installation) Toslink Audio Cable – 25 Feet

I have the TV up on the mantel piece in our living room above our unused fireplace and a receiver on a sideboard in the far left corner of the room. I have used HDMI for a while, but it’s a little far and one day I lost the sound from the TV. I tried a few things and decided to go with this Amazon basics Toslink optical cable which is long enough and shouldn’t degrade the signal over distance.

It came coiled in a box. The coil is large enough to prevent damage. Quality is great. It’s a pretty thick cable with a soft rubber outer insulation layer comparable to better instrument cables (I play guitar). The plugs are plastic and come with clear end covers and what looks like a protective brass bezel around the fiber optic tip to prevent damage. It looks rugged and well made. The plastics of the plug feel like they’re good quality. It’s very flexible for the thickness so it’s easy to route around fairly tight spaces (unlike some of the cheaper cables).

In Use

I plugged this into the TV optical out straight to the optical input under the TV/SAT section of my receiver. Turned it on and turned on our smart TV. Everything worked first go. With the HDMI cable, when it did work, I could not use the HDMI TV input if I wanted sound. Now I have HDMI for picture only and sound through this cable.
I had already tried a shorter optical cable I once used with my computer along with a digital analog converter, but the DA converter caused lag with a noticeable delay which meant the TV speakers were out of sync.

With this Amazon Toslink cable there is no noticeable lag and I can have both the receiver and TV speakers on at the same time. It does the job well with no irritating echo so it worked out really well.

Conclusion

It’s a simple thing but the quality of materials is good and it worked as intended. I’m very happy to have sound working properly. We started watching more TV and movies since we got the sound working and Game of Thrones is much more enjoyable with a full bodied sound that the TV can’t provide on its own. At $10 it’s also good value. I recommend it.