I have a nice Sony STR-K760P receiver with 6.1 channel surround. I'm feeding my DVD in through digital coax, but my DirecTV and XBox both supply Dolby Digital 5.1 via optical output only. While these cables seem just slightly delicate (I certainly wouldn't want to get on them, and that i was careful this is not to bend them around sharp corners during setup) they work perfectly! Digital is all-or-nothing, either you have the entire signal depends upon don't. There's no have to buy $20 - $50 digital optical cables from Monster or any other manufacturer, these will attempt to work great. My XBox sounds amazing when playing DD 5.1 games.