We have debated this on HTT a hundred times. I feel there is. I tried Monster Digital Coax and their same line Optical. I felt the coax had more output, but the midrange sounded muddy, and subbass was overbearing and sloppy. The optical brought the midrange detail up considerably, but not to the point of bringing it forward. I have heard it said that certain recievers or pre-pros will behave differantly. One guy said while the Elites seemed to benefit from the optical, he felt the Denons displayed no differance, but he prefered the additional output of the Coax, and the more secure connection for the same on the Denons. I have really only tried the digital coax on my Elite (I have always been a die hard Optical guy) so I have no real basis for comparison outside that reciever. While I am not a huge believer in the expensive cable debate and their benefits, I do believe the methood of transport can, and do make a differance
I am a die hard optical guy also. I've always used optical over coaxial anytime there is the option. What do you think of using the 5.1 out on the dvd player. So I will be using the dvd players decoding instead of the receivers. Haven't really tried it yet, but I'm kinda curious if the the decoder on the dvd player is any better. The reason I am asking is, I only have 2 optical inputs on the back of my receiver, there is one on the front but I don't want any cords hanging in front of my receiver. I need to hook up 3 opticals though, 1 dvd player, xbox, and ps2. So I thought about hooking the ps2 and xbox up through the optis. and trying the coaxial on the dvd, or even the 5.1 out. Hell I might just use the standard audio outs on the ps2 since there isn't alot of games that are dolby digital anyways, except for the cut scenes.
IMO I would use the DVD player through the optical and one of the games through either coax or analog. They do make game switches than allow for various inputs and outputs, maybe look into a game switch that will allow you to use a single in on the reciever/TV yet allow you multiple systems. I would suggest using the receivers processing over the 5.1 in. My bet is the receiver has better chipsets than the DVD player for processing, and the receiver likely has a passthrough on the 5.1 in, disableing processing. The receiver is what, 4 years old, maybe 5? And the DVD is a year or less? If you were running an Elite DV47A or better I'd say they may have better chipsets and similar processing capabilities, but I am willing to bet my DV45A doesn't even have as nice a chipset as your receiver. I use my DVD's 5.1 outs for multi-channel music only. If you were not aware, SACD will not properly send signals via DC or Optical, you must use analog in (5.1), and most DVD-A formats are the same. I made the mistake of first hooking them up via digital and was very disapointed. Going to analog made all the differance in the world. I have all assignable digital inputs and have assigned them as follows. I have my digital coax set as my in for 2 channel stereo "CD" selection on the receiver (from the DVD player's dc out). I use my optical out from the DVD for movies, via my "DVD" selection, allowing me up to 7.1. And finally I use my 5.1 for multi-channel as listed. The 5.1 is a passthrough for DVDa and SACD listening, with all processing before the reciever. My DVD player covers that for me with a nice feature set including EQ, boost, and speaker delay.
My dvd has bass management and delay but no eq or anything else fancy. The X11 series came out in 2001 I believe, and I think the 656 came out somewhere around 2002 or 3, don't remember. The 811 does do a pass through on all the processing for the 5.1 in. I don't use SACD or DVD-A so that's not a worry. When using the dvd players decoder you can't use 6.1 correct? Since the dvd player won't decode 6.1? The game switches you are referring to are only for analog audio and video right? I don't think they have digital inputs or outs on them. I have plenty of video inputs on the tv. I'm just trying to use all 3 digital outs on my dvd,xbox, ps2. I think I'm just gonna stick with the optical out on the dvd player and xbox, and just use standard left and right crap on the ps2, since like I stated before, most ps2 games aren't dolby digital. And I don't need a digital connnection to use dts:neo or PLII. Thanks again for the help Seth.
Hey bud, I found a couple optical splitters for you. This is a switch type. It is only $20 This is a simple splitter. It is $6. Hope these help.
