DA conversion with Apogee Ensemble + M-audio DSM3 speakers?

[Superdatasatan]

I've been thinking of getting these two new items to upgrade my previous interface / monitors.

So ensemble has optical out and DSM3 optical in.

My questions is that if I would connect the ensemble outs to DSM3's with digital cable, am I sort of losing the great DA conversion of Ensemble?

--> will DA conversion happen purely inside DSM3's? And in that case connecting with "traditional speaker cables" would bring me back to apogee conversion?

Thanks for any help / info!

 

[John_C]

Use the best converters, which in this case is the Ensemble. Go analogue from the Ensemble to the monitors with some decent balanced cable