Can you hook both optical and analog audio?

Rich*s · 03-25-2005, 07:20 AM

My newbie status will be showing here:

Can you use both the optical and analog audio out connections at the same time on DVD players, cable boxes, TV's etc.? Or does plugging one type in usually disable the other?

I am trying to run two audio systems with my home theater: an expensive analog setup and a cheap 5.1 AV system. Can I run them both at the same time?

If not, do "Y" connectors (analog) work well? I'd love to hear from the purists as well as the practical types.

Thanks.

Don*A · 03-25-2005, 07:30 AM

Yes you can.

Bob McElfresh · 03-26-2005, 01:55 PM

A "Y" connector on the coaxial-digital output is a no-no. The impedence mis-match could cause reflections/attenuation which will cause audio drop-outs.

Try to stick with digital if you can. Send optical to one system for music and coaxial-digital to another for movies. When in doubt - use the coaxial-digital connection for the longer run.

Your real problem will be that your DVD player will have a setup menu that gives you a choice: 2-channel or 5.1 channel. If you setup things for 5.1, you MAY not get all the sounds from a CD/SACD disk through the 2 channel music connection. This means changing the DVD player setup menu when you toggle back and forth.

But give it a shot. It wont hurt anything to try.

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 03-26-2005, 03:34 PM

Rich,

Quote:

Can you use both the optical and analog audio out connections at the same time on DVD players, cable boxes, TV's etc.?

This topic came up a week or so ago, and it seems the answer is “it depends on your DVD player.” Mine outputs both digital and analog at the same time, and like you I send the analog to a secondary system.

However, some people responding to the thread confirmed that their players had a menu selection for one or the other, so they couldn’t do both.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



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