instead of buying a cd player to suck up more room i went out and got a top of the line dvd player with sacd playback, is there a way around using multichannel to hook it up the reciever to listen to my cd's? i have a pioneer 7.1 thx reciever and a grand wega 55in rptv(with a cc) with a onkyo dvd player and it is all hooked up with monster and acoustic research cables(just to give you an idea of what im working with!! but for some reason i cant figure this little damn thing out
The 6 RCA connections into the 6 ch direct in on the pioneer is far superior to using the optical or coax connection. It is the only way to get SACD or DVD-A playback and is also the way to listen to 2 channel CDs.
"is there a way around using multichannel to hook it up the reciever to listen to my cd's?"
If your concern is about multichannel output from two channel Redbook CD's, there is no problem. Obviously the DVD player won't create channels that don't exist. The best hook up is typically through the 5.1 analog outputs as little has been done to the signal path. Stereo CD's will play in stereo only when the receiver is set to its "direct" analog inputs.
SACD's in multi channels can sometimes be downmixed to two channel by simply setting up the player to only output signal from the front channel analog outputs. Some players do a better job at this than others. Also not all players will send LFE signals to the sub when using the analog outputs.