Connecting DVD/CD to AVR

acm91962

Just got a Polk Csi5 center and Polk FXi A6 surrounds. I have an older Panasonic (2004) DVD/CD unit and a Marantz SR 8400 AVR, and Polk RTi 150 towers and Velodyne powered sub. Should I use all or choose between: regular 2 channel connection with RCAs, an analog 5.1 connection with RCAs, and a Digital connection using Optical digital audio cable.

Sorry I am a novice to 5.1 . Any help appreciated. Thanks

cnh

I'd connect the Panasonic to the Denon via the optical connection since it is quite likely that the DACs in the Marantz are superior to having the Panny do the digital to analog decoding? But you can try it all ways and see what sounds best to you...since that is the most important thing.

Example, I sold a Denon AVR 887 to a friend at a really LOW price and we hooked up his Panasonic DVD player to it via toslink...on a pair of bookshelves this sounded great for CDs...on his EPI towers it was ear bleedingly BRIGHT on CDs but fine for DVDs and we decided to use both outputs (analog for CD) optical for DVD surround!

cnh

acm91962

Thanks for the input. So if I understand correctly, it's ok to have all the connections and I should be able to switch between digital and analog input by using the Marantz AVR remote?

Serendipity

Keiko wrote: »

I found that using a digital connection for CDs to be just as you described. Ear bleeding bright. I use analog for CD playback and digital coax for DVDs. This works best for me. YMMV.

+1

If the DACs in the receiver are bright, analog is a better choice.