I currently have a 950 connected to a Denon 3910 Universal DVD player using a digital coaxial cable. For DVD-A and SACD playback, I have also connected the player using the 5-channel audio inputs.

Here is my questions...for "stereo" listening, is there any benefit in using the 2-channel analog audio inputs on the 950? It appears to me that if I want to listen to analog 2-channel, I can simply use the bypass setting on the 950 which feeds a 2-channel analog signal using the left/right connections of the 5-channel inputs.

If I want to use the DACs in the 950 instead of the 3910, then I can use the digital signal via the coaxial cable.

Based on this setup, I don't see a need to use the 2-channel analog inputs. Is there an advantage that I am missing using my current approach?

Thanks for you assistance,

David

It depends on if you like the sound of the DACs in your player better or those in the 950. I use the 950's digital input because it sounds a bit better.

The problem I have with the digital input on the 950 is the signal auto-detect sometimes causes the beginning of a song to be cut if the gap between songs is too long. I don't appear to have that problem when I use the analog inputs, which is what got me thinking about this issue.

As soundhound points out, it will depend on whether you prefer the 3910's DAC's or the 950's DAC's for CD listening. Also, it will depend somewhat on how the 3910 behaves. Presumably, if you prefer the 3910's DAC's you should be able to use the six channel analog output from the 3910 with just the left and right channels active.

With my Yamaha DVD-S1500, however, I have the stereo analog output of the player connected because I like the S1500's DAC's for CD playback but the S1500 applies Pro Logic II processing to CD's when using the six channel analog output.

Thanks guys. Gonk, you touched on my primary concern. While the 3910 doesn't convert the 2-channel signal into a 5-channel output, I am not sure what processing, if any, is being done to the signal using the 5-channel inputs.

I'm not real familiar with the processing logic found in the 3910 and Denon's other universal players, but the things I would expect would be bass management (which will be ignored if your speakers are set to "large" and your sub to "on" in the 3910's menu) and possibly time delay (if you have set speaker distances in the 3910's menu). You'll know it immediately if there's any surround processing going on for CD's played through the six-channel outputs, if only because you'll get audio from all of the speakers. I know it pretty much smacked me in the face with the S1500 (oddly enough, the effect of PL II on CD's from the S1500 was more pronounced and less appealing than when using the 950's PL II processing for CD playback).

I have the Denon 5900 and I connect it to 950 using BOTH the stereo analog connection AND the 5.1 multichannel inputs. This can be achieved because the Denon features 2 sets of main outs. The 3910 has this feature as well. The one benefit I find from doing this is I can listen to DPLII or DTS Neo 6 via the 2 ch. inputs but not the 5.1 multichannel inputs. Of course, you can do this as well with the digial coax connection you mentioned, but then you are using the Outlaws DACS vs. the Denon. Then again, the analog connection is probably being converted to digital and back by the Outlaw to implement the processing. It's probably a wash. The other reason I like using both is I use the Zone 2 for outdoor speakers, since the 950 will only send analog signals (but not the 5.1 multichannel bypass inputs) to the Zone 2, I can send whatever I have in the 5900 to the outdoor speakers and people can watch HDTV in the living room. Everyone wins!!

That's exactly right - if you are going to use PL II or NEO6 for listening to CD's, it's best to use the 950's digital input, as the 950 has to convert the signal to the digital domain anyway to apply either of those processing modes. On the other hand, using zone 2 alone is a sufficient reason to have the stereo analog output hooked up.

Great info guys...

Am I wrong in assuming that the signal-lock issues doesn't exist when using the analog inputs?

Signal lock is only an issue with digital signals - it is related to the processor having to identify which type (format) of digital signal is being received, be it PCM (such as CD's), DTS, DTS ES, Dolby 5.1, or Dolby _._ (since Dolby can include any number of channels less than 5.1). With an analog signal, the issue is moot because there's only one option to choose from.