ive tried both ways gonk .. i was kinda hoping you replied have read a lot of your reeds ... anyhow .. at moment i use a dvd for a source on even my cd's but my curiosity is when you are sending coax or opt .. ( any digital signal ) to you processor you are using the dac in the processor .. in this case the 950 .. when using the analog R L to the CD input on processor you are using the on board dac in source unit (dvd etc) ... the onkyo 801 i have has direct and pure direct .. but these eliminate the Xover so no sub capability ..