Tracking - High quality interface in analog vs. Low quality intercace in digital vs. Coax->Optical converter

    Hi All,


    I'm about to track guitars and bass with my Kemper for the first time, with the intention of the songs actually being released (I've tracked song ideas, demos and such with it before), and I intend to record a raw track for re-amping purposes, as well as a dry track with the settings I like.

    I have a UAD Apollo Twin as my main interface, but I also have a Behringer UMC1820 that we mainly use with my band for live gigs where the drummer gets a separate mix and click and pre-recorded sample tracks go to FOH.

    The Apollo sadly does not have coaxial SPDIF inputs, only optical. The UMC1820 does have coaxial SPDIF in and out, however the Apollo is a much-much higher quality interface of course.

    My question is: How do you think I should go about recording to get the best results?

    Option 1: Two analog outs from the Kemper to the Apollo's two analog inputs
    Option 2: SPDIF output from the Kemper to the UMC1820 SPDIF input
    Option 3: Buy a coaxial to optical converter and use that to go into the Apollo's optical input

    I'm guessing that in the long run this doesn't make much of a difference and all 3 options are viable, I just wanted to ask if any of you have perhaps tried these and decided on one of them for some reason.

    Thanks in advance!

    My personal experience with a coax to optical converter into the SPDIF of my RME babyface pro is that the analog outs sounded much better and less fizzy than the digital signal chain. I did a lot of A/B testing at the time and the difference was obvious and clear. The analog outs just sounded better even though I was going through an extra DA/AD conversion.