Is it necessary or even possible to hook up something like an Onkyo DX-C390 cd player to a HK 3480 stereo receiver using the optical or coaxial outputs the Onkyo cd player has?
I have an optical cable and a coaxial cable but do not see any inputs in the back of the HK for optical inputs or anything...just the standard red and white cd inputs.
I hear its best to use the optical jacks or coaxial jacks... i wanna stay away from the red n white analog so how do i hook up the better way if there are not optical or coaxial jacks in back the receiver???? I need 2 know!!!!!!! :-)
It depends whether the dac's in the player are better or worse than the dac's in the reciever. The standard red and white analogue interconnects that come with most players are rubbish and some better quality cables may bring you benefits.
The outputs from the player will cover pretty much the whole fangs of audio options. The H/K has no coax input? The coax is a s/pdif connection. The optical will output dts/etc to your receiver. If the receiver does not have a port, do not fear, just use the best connection, the red and whites, and let the receiver do the decoding. Need new cables do you.
In reading this string, I don't think anyone really answered your question. You don't have digital inputs on your stereo receiver--those are typically available only on a HT receiver, which has digital to analog converters and a digital processor which may do the job of converting the digital info on the disc into an analog sound. So, you will have to use an analog stereo connection leaving the digital processing to your CD player.
BTW, whoever told you that it is best to use a digital connection between a cd player and a receiver must have been a slimey saleperson who was only interested in charging you an outrageous amount to sell you a digital cable, whether it be optical or digital coax. Fact is, the DACs in your CD player may be better than the DACs in a receiver, hence your better sound may come from the CD player's processing rather than the receiver. The only way to know is to try both (when you have DACs built into your receiver) and listen for the differences. The point is that there is no hard and fast rule as to which is "better" and for anyone to assert that there is shows they either don't know what they are talking about or they have a self interest in selling you something more (hence, they are knowingly lying).