Which puts out better sound a optical connection or a 5.1 connection?

Question

i have a sony 400 disc dvd/cd/piccd it has a optical output as well as a 5.1 my reciever has both as well they both have hdmi for pic qaulity.i prefer less wires but love quality surround sound.

Answer 1

truth is, it dosn't matter. You would need super human hearing to be able to tell a difference. if you don't believe me then do a blind test.

Answer 2

Generally optical is easier to get a receiver to recognize Dolby Digital 5.1 on.   Sometimes trying to get it to recognize through HDMI or Coax is not that easy on some receivers.

Answer 3

Do you mean it has both optical and coax or do you mean it has both optical and 5.1 fully processed outputs. If it is both optical and coax then yes they are pretty much the same. If however you mean 6 seperate analog outputs then it could be very different depending on your receiver. If you have a high end receiver then use the digital output and rely on the processor and digital to analog converter in the high end receiver to give you better sound. If it is a really cheap receiver then the DVD player might have a better sounding D to A converter(though it won't be that much better.)

Answer 4

- You connect HDMI to TV to get video and optical output to receiver to get 5.1 surround sound.

Answer 5

in any case your 5.1 is in the picture because optical can give you data to be decoded from optical to digital and then to  5.1 channel audio amplifier it doesnt really matter whether directly you are feeding amplifier or thru a optical device because sound has to be delivered by amplifier