macca350 and geno, well, I agree. If my life depended on it, I don't know if I could tell any difference. When I first installed my 3930CI, I used DL3. And I thought, wow, that sounds fantastic!!! Love the superior DACs in my 3930CI vs my previously owned Denon 2910. But then I learned that by using DL3, I was engaging the DACs in my AVR3805, which were identical to the DACs in the DVD2910. The AVR's EQ was/is off. So then I pulled out my stand (have to move the FL speaker out of the way first), removed the DL3, and connected 8 analogue interconnects (5.1 and 2 ch), and a digital coax for video DVD. I made some setup changes to both the AVR and player, then played a sample of my DVDA/SACD collection, and thought, wow, that sounds fantastic!! Glad I changed to analogue vs digital. But then a few days later I remembered I hadn't setup the speaker settings of the 3930CI. So I then defined speaker configurations, channel levels, delay times (distances), set both player and AVR to "pure direct", and thought, wow, that sounds fantastic!! So it seems that to me, the idea of using a superior component/interconnect was powerful enough for me to hear an "improvement". And yes, macca350, a great deal of info in home a/v is subjective. The only thing that matters, ultimately, is one's own experience. Since the 3930CI cannot output both DL3 and 5.1 ch at the same time, I don't know how I would conduct an A/B test. I'd have to play a portion of DVDA/SACD, make setup changes to both the AVR and player, and then play the same piece of music, and maybe remember if it sounds better or not, 5 minutes later, maybe a few minutes longer? I've already purchased 4 sets of great analogue interconnects and a a great digital coax cable, and from what I understand, all things being equal (they never are), analogue is the optimum choice over digital. Convenience is not a factor for me, nor is bass management, nor is EQ.
EDIT: Per Kal Rubinson, contributing editor of Stereophile, re: DL3 vs 5.1 ch, "There may be differences in quality due to other factors but both analog 5.1 and DL3 are, essentially, lossless since they do not compress and they do convey the full data without any loss of bits. That's the definition."
I'm sticking w/ analogue (caveat - for my current system). The DACs in my player are better vs my AVR (whether I can hear it or not, I know they are better), I already have the required interconnects, I have bass management, speaker config, channel levels, AL24 processing, disinterested in EQ (at this time), a programmed Harmony 880, I'm set. And that's a primary reason I bought the 3930CI, to experience the great DACs. Macca350, to answer your question, if I had a Denon receiver with DAC's equal to or better than my 3930CI (such as your suggested 5805CI), I would use whatever interconnect would engage the superior DACs of the AVR, probably digital. I'm not partial towards one interconnect over another, only towards the optimum sound quality (and PQ, of course) for my system.
