No... I mean:
stereo source -> 3.5mm/phono output on sound card -> phono input on amp -> PL2
and at the
same time
multichannel source -> optical -> amp -> sweet sound with one less set of analogue cables in the chain
So less cables, better quality?
Do amps/receivers do stereo -> 5.1 better than sound cards? I would have thought so. They cost more and there are loads of people who may purchase a receiver to play back stereo through a CD player...
My denon amp can switch between optical and phono automatically (I had to set it up to do this)... Sky goes through phono, when I switch PS2 on it automatically switches to optical