Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Multi channel analog with 3.1 system vs Optical

I really depends on how the BD player, and receiver both handle down mixing. I'd be more likely to believe that the receiver would down mix the rear channels into the fronts, but some BD players do it too. Only way to know is to check the manual (if it is documented at all), or play a test disc that has 7.1 audio tracks and make sure nothing goes missing.

If you deliver PCM over optical it will only be two channels. The only way to get multi-channel over optical is with a lossy bitstream. If the BD player does a good job decoding, and down mixing the lossless audio then the analog connection may yield better sound quality. That's too if the receiver doesn't try to do any fancy processing of its analog ins.