Hi Carl,
That is my take too, but, the advice from M seems to be ID40 in the 808 is preferred. So, their point must be that the noise in the 861 is greater than the impact of transforming the audio to an SPDIF/AES signal and then converting it back again once inside the 861v6.

Given that the 808 is a 2ch source and ID40 doesn't do 5.1 I'd really have a go with your Option 1) as that will sound very different especially if the +3dB tweak hasn't been applied in the 861.

edit...agree with your speculation. There could be a few things involved here.

Last edited by ncpl; 2011-03-23 10:52. Reason: speculation
Rgds,
Nick