VH99

I have a UX2 and noticed it had a digital out. Rather than plug in cheap powered speakers, I was thinking of running the optical digital out to a receiver and bookshelf speakers. Has anyone tried this? What kind of results?. Seems like bad speakers are the weak link. also, what Headphones do people use? Wires get in the way but Bluetooth lags. I have an old fm pair which has no lag but does have static. Thoughts?