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Optical or Coax digital ouput from DVD to Receiver

I just bought a Denon AVR-3802 receiver. It has three optical/toslink inputs but only one coaxial digital input.
My DVD player has both optical/toslink outputs and my CD changer (Denon DCM-460) has only a coaxial digital output.

If DTS and Dolby 5.1 soundtracks from DVD movies are most important to me, should i:

A- Use the coaxial input for the DVD player and analog inputs for the CD changer (I can always spin CDs in my DVD player)? or

B- Use the coaxial input for the CD changer and an optical input for the DVD player?

Is there that big a difference between coaxial cable and optical cable for movie soundtracks? and is the DAC in the Denon AVR-3802 that much better than the one in the DCM-460?
papalion
2 responses Add your response
audiopath
92 posts
 
I'm probably gonna take some heat from other "goners" but I recommend (and so does Home Theater Magazine) using the coax for the CD and the toslink for the DVD.
Also, hook up the analog outputs of the CD player and compare the sound quality of the DAC's in the Denon DCM-460 to the ones in the AVR-3802. You might like the analog outputs of the DCM-460 better which may render the other question moot. And the volume control on the DCM-460 remote doesn't work when you are using digital outputs.
My experience is that the toslink vs. coaxial doesn't make much difference on Dolby Digital or DTS, but it makes a noticable difference on Red Book audio CD.
mg123
192 posts
 
All sources say that the coaxial connection is better (less jitter, more accurate). Assuming that your cd changer will only be playing non-encoded disks (DTS or hdcd) and is of lesser quality than your dvd player, I would use strategy A above. Don't know about the DACS
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