Chord C-lite Toslink to Toslink 1m Cable

C-lite is The Chord Company’s optical digital interconnect, an original Chord design. This version has a full-size Toslink plug at each end and is 1m long, for joining the optical output of a CD player, TV, streamer or games console to the optical input of a DAC, amplifier or soundbar.

Wide bandwidth PMA optical cable

Chord uses a wide bandwidth PMA optical cable for C-lite. It is specified to pass signals up to 96kHz, in keeping with the industry standard for Toslink connections.

Built to bend, not break

The central conductor sits inside an internal jacket of soft PVC, which is then covered by a hard-skin PVC outer jacket. Chord says this helps prevent crush damage, while staying flexible enough for a tight bend radius without affecting the light carrier: useful when the cable has to turn a corner behind a rack or a TV.

What Hi-Fi Choice said

Hi-Fi Choice reviewed this exact version, the 1m Toslink to Toslink, in issue 485 (February 2022), gave it five stars and its Recommended badge. The reviewer noted that Chord finishes the fibre with polished ends to improve transmission, found the Toslink plugs to be of very good quality, and wrote that playing Hans Zimmer’s Wheel Of Fortune “demonstrates how well the C-lite transports everything… including the quieter sections of the piece and the powerful drums that propel you through the music. This is a very nicely made and affordable optical cable that will suit most systems well.”

The C-lite range

Chord makes C-lite Toslink to Toslink and mini-jack to Toslink in 1m, 2m, 3m, 5m, 8m and 10m lengths. For portable kit there are 15cm and 30cm versions, Toslink to mini-jack and mini-jack to mini-jack, so you can reach the small optical sockets on many miniature DACs and players without an adaptor.

Good to know

• This is the 1m Toslink to Toslink version. Check that both of your sockets are full-size Toslink; a 3.5mm mini-optical socket needs a mini-jack version.
• For example, the optical output of the Shanling SM1.3 streamer or the Shanling CR60 CD player to a DAC or amplifier with an optical input.
• Optical carries a digital signal only: you still need a DAC (often built into the amplifier or soundbar) at the receiving end.
• Chord’s install advice: switch your equipment off before fitting the cable, hold the plug rather than the cable, don’t bend it excessively, and route it away from power cables.
• Chord covers its cables with a lifetime warranty against faulty materials and workmanship: keep your receipt.
• In the box: the C-lite cable.