Do I need a Toslink repeater?

I have a 30ft toslink that worked before but after I moved the toslink cable and the AV Receiver stopped working. The toslink still has a red light but very dim. The new placement of the cable has more turns and I was wondering if that would affect the toslink red light... If so would a toslink repeater fix the problem?

Did the Toslink cable have a permanent "kink" after moving the cable?

Any kind of physical interference with Toslink cables will surely affect its performance. The dim red light is a good indicator of this. With all the twists and turns you're putting the cable through, you may be putting in some "kinks" in the transmission of the red light. Might be time for a new one...

The best one I've used in the past couple of years is the XD1-TL25 (http://www.comprehensiveinc.com/cables/5351-comprehensive-xhdtrade-digital-toslink-audio-cable-25ft.html). It's a very sturdy cable and can withstand normal use.

also, "turns" and bends in the cable run can lower the light intensity over a longer run. Each time you "turn" the light path you can get a small amount of "light leakage" from the optical core...it would get progressively worse with each additional turn or bend in the cable.