Transport hook up? optic or XLR?

I’m purchasing a used Emotiva ERC-2 CD player to use as a transport to my SGCD. What is the best interconnect to use for this? Optical cable (digital) or XLR (anolog)? The ERC-2 does not have an HDMI output.

Try them both, but my guess is that the SGCD would have a better DAC and so using the optical (or coaxial) digital connection to transport the data to be decoded by the SGCD may yield the best sound.

You are just going to have to listen, but I would try all the digital outputs, not just toslink.

digital

Your transport does not have an XLR digital output. So I would chose the digital coaxial connection.

The AES/EBU (XLR) output. I owned one for several years.

I have always find the coaxial and XLR to be the same in sound quality, and the toslink to be muddier sounding. I wouldn’t use toslink unless I have no other connection. And yes, use the superior SGCD for decoding the digital signal.