Sanjay's saying the 96kHz signal is processed in stereo, but splitting it into multichannel at 96kHz is more than it can handle and it has to downconvert it.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Matthew, It is. In fact it's even capable of handling a 192kHz signal. Surround processing of a stereo 96kHz signal can seriously tax the processing chip; that's a helluva lot of data to manipulate! When your 950 or my old MC-1 does D/A conversion of a 96kHz signal, they are essentially bypassing the processing chip (no data manipulation) and going straight for the DACs. Who says that nothing better than a 48kHz signal ever gets to the DACs? Surroundophile had no problem with the data from his DADs being passed digitally to the 950's DACs; it even switched over to the 96kHz PCM Stereo mode automatically. And because there is stereo 96/24 software that can be digitally fed to processors, it makes sense to have 96/24 D to A conversion built in to the 950.

Also, have you tried to find a manufacturer that still makes 48kHz DACs? Pretty soon every receiver and processor will have 192/24 capable DACs in them, primarily because that's all that will be available from chip makers. It's like when someone asks if it is worth getting a DVD player that passes DTS or has 96/24 DACs built in. Let's face it, it would actually require extra effort (not to mention some additional expense probably) to find a DVD player without those features.

Best,
Sanjay

Thanks Sanjay, that makes sense. I guess the only option is to use the player's 2 ch out, which I have hooked to the 950's CD analog input, using the player's 96 khz DACs to run through the 950's DPL2 or NEO6.