Anyone who has a decently new Mac has the ability to use TOSLINK (commonly known as an optical cable) to transmit digital audio streams. Practically, this means that you hook your computer to a decent audio receiver and enjoy surround sound. This is one of my favorite features of the Macs I own, and something I use quite a bit, considering my Mac is my only entertainment system.
Optical cables are pretty easy to find, but the trouble is, that most Macs realize this feature as a Mini-TOSLINK jack, which for all intents and purposes is a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This design makes sense, but I’ve found it next to impossible to actually find the correct cable. Not even the local Apple store carries this obscurity (which is particularly odd, because they don’t sell a computer without this feature). Once upon a time, I did buy such a cable from Apple, and all was well about two years. Moving in and out of dorms eventually took its toll, snapping the adapter piece off the main cable. After that, my digital audio experience has never been the same, and I have spent many hours taping and adjusting the broken cable for sub-par, crackly audio at best. I’ve been an unhappy customer for a while.
I finally found time to go to the store (Fry’s electronics, which I actually semi-despise, but who doesn’t?) and lo and behold they had just the cable I needed. This is a new development at my local Fry’s; the best they could offer me was a cheap adapter that didn’t quite fit, meaning a similarly bad experience. The Shaxon optical cable (model: POTL35P2203MBK) I bought yesterday, in comparison, works perfectly. At only $15 for 3 meters, it wasn’t too expensive either. For advice to a Mac user needing an optical cable, let me point you there. And from a quality standpoint, let me tell you, that this thing is built like a beast. I can’t speak for durability quite yet, but the thing feels like quality in your hand, and that’s something that makes me a happy customer.