The 5.1 input bypass all ADC/DSP/DAC, so you get nothing but volume control and amplification -- which is exactly what you want if you have invested in a good outboard DAC. Connecting a DAC to the CD input will mean you take the digital audio from the CD player (or DVD in this case), converts it to analog with the fancy DAC, then the 1050 converts it back to digital, passes it through the DSP (which may do absolutely nothing to it, depending on how you have the 1050 set up), and then on to the 1050's DAC. This is why the 950 includes "stereo bypass" on the two-channel analog inputs.

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