What's the best way to connect an universal player to 950 to take advantage of multi-channel music: 5.1 Outputs from player to 5.1 inputs on 950 or PCM digital connection is good enough ?
Thanks.
tvd51

I use both connections. Digital connection for DD and DTS movies or music, Analog 6 channel for DVD Audio or SACD.

Definitely use both. The 5.1 analog is essential for DVD-Audio and SACD, but you really want to use the 950's internal DACs for movies -- along with the triple crossover, EX/ES processing, and such that the 950 provides.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

That means I need 5 more interconnect cables. Are Outlaw cables any good ?
tvd51

Six more -- five full-range plus LFE. And yes, the Outlaw PCA's are very good. I've got a bunch of them in my system (including half a dozen of them for my DVD-Audio player).

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

5 cables are all I need because I don't have a sub. What DVDA/SCAD machine are you using ? I'm thinking of buying Denon 2900 or Pioneer Elite 47Ai.
tvd51

I've got a Panasonic RA60 DVD-Audio player, no SACD (yet). If I were getting a universal player now (will eventually, but waiting to upgrade my display first), I'd look at either the Denon 2200 or 2900 or maybe the Pioneer -- and I've seen some casual but positive feedback for the new entry-level Pioneer, comparing it favorably to the 45A and 47Ai even though it retails for under $200.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

That's fine but please remember you will not be able to redirect the .1 output to your main speakers, which means the subwoofer content will be lost. DVD-A and SACD have 5.1 channels.

Best,

Will

Will makes an excellent point -- DVD-A was a large part of the reason I finally bought a sub last year. Unless you add something like an ICBM to merge the LFE into the mains, you will be losing something, and depending on the specific disc you could be losing a lot.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

I use the Denon 1600 and in trying different setups I noticed on certain DVD-A disks the player will not output the 6channel audio with the players sub setting set to NONE. With the sub set to none Adv. resolution stereo as well as DD And DTS all work fine.
As a side note I just set up my brothers Pioneer 563A universal player and that thing is hard to beat at $170.