Toslink vs USB

[yanc]

I got very bad surprise with usb oyade cable being not transparent at all.
I initially though that the usb input of a D200 or D220 was not the good choice but after changing the oyade cable for a basic printer cable with ferrite everything changed....
On the contrary alwyas found that toslink even with a lifatek was well below AES/EBU as input on D200 and D220.

I looked up the Oyaide usb cable and they’re flat cables. That’s possible the worst way to build a cable. You would be lucky if you could use it as a printer cable if it were a bit too long.

Having used the optical cable for a week, I kind of returned to the USB connection, to give it another try, before I decide which one to settle with.
Right now I feel the USB connection sounds slightly more natural over long hours of playing.
But as said earlier both connections are more or less equivalent on my system, and my decision may be based more on simplicity than anything else. I do think that the less connections, connectors, cables, etc, the better.

On USB cables :
I did try several ordinary USB "printer" cables, and found some better, some not so good. I also owned the flat Oyaide d+ Class S, and some of the cheaper Nordost & Wireworld cables but didn't feel they offered much improvement from ordinary USB cables, except perhaps in build quality.
The Continental 5S is not a flat cable. It is round and relatively thick, and used along with the Intona USB, is my favourite USB implementation so far.