Optical is typically inferior. It is because the circuitry on both sides are electronic, so conversion to optical and back to electrical is required. In all but purpose built expensive components off the shelf optical/electrical converters are used and as a consequence have low quality sound characteristics. There are some high end companies using optical as a way of reducing noice... but these are far between.
Ultimately it will have to do with how good your system is at resolving. So, for instance my TV to Soundbar is run on optical. It is not obvious. But pretty low resolution application.