I have placed a reservation for the 950. In my HT upgrade plan I am looking at DVD players. These all have DTS and Dolby decoders in them. Which processor gets used? The DVD units, the 950's, both?

I'd recommend the 950's, but it depends on how you connect the DVD player.

If you use the 5.1 analog output from the DVD player to the 950's 5.1 analog input, you will be using the DVD player's decoder. You will also be giving up DPL II, Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, DTS-Neo6, and all the other fancy processing in the 950 -- none of that works with the 5.1 analog input. If you use the digital output from the DVD player (coax or optical, whichever is there), then the 950 handles the decoding. Seeing as that's one of the main things the 950 was built for, it'd be the better one to use. Even good DVD players are likely to have only "good enough" decoders onboard, without bass management or 6.1/7.1 capability.

Do any of the players you are looking at do DVD-Audio or SACD?

I am looking at the panasonic RP91N which has DVD-A.

I thought that might be the case. Nice choice -- I've heard a lot of good things about the RP-91. I think probably the best bet for a DVD/DVD-Audio player paired up with the 950 is to actually have separate connections for DVD-Video and DVD-Audio. That sounds painful, but there's a good reason for it.

For DVD-Video, you really want a digital audio connection so you can use all of the 950's bells and whistles (bass management, DD-EX, DTS-ES, DPL2, and what-not). So a coax or optical digital connection is in order there. Problem there is that DVD-Audio and SACD can't leave the player in a digital form (annoying, but unavoidable for the forseeable future). Therefore, you'll still need to use the RP-91's 5.1 analog output to connect to the 950 for DVD-Audio playback.

Gonk

Would you recommend an ICBM between the DVD-A 5.1 analog out and the 950?

Thanks for your help

I'd say that it could be useful, depending on your speakers. I've read some things that suggest that the RP-91 may actually have some bass management capability, but I don't know how extensive or if it works for the DVD-Audio. The 950 gives you the option of an 80Hz crossover for all five channels on the analog input, so if you think you'd get good results with that (all of your speakers would work well getting 80Hz on up, and your sub getting below 80Hz) that could be all you'd need. If you'll be using the DVD-Audio a lot and need better bass management than the 950's 80Hz crossover or whatever bass management the RP-91 offers, then you'd need the ICBM.

I'd recommend against getting an ICBM before you have a chance to try things out. See what settings you use on the 950 for your speakers (crossover frequencies and such for the 950's bass management) and see if you want similar settings on DVD-Audio -- if you can't get them with the RP-91 or 950, then I'd go after an ICBM.

tps123
I have the RP91, it is an awesome DVD player. You can find it at www.ecost.com for around $440 right now. I got mine from them last summer, great service.