Ritz – I’ve got to admit you make my head spin trying to follow your logic. Your very reason for being anti SACD or DVD-A is the very reason I'm so interested in HDMI audio. That being a broadband digital interface into my Pre/Pro so I can use its DACs and processing without going through an extra D/A conversion. HDMI solves this problem and I don’t understand why the copy protection is such an issue in this case. It is not like the HDCP is degrading the signal, as it should be totally transparent. This is not like some of the really nasty analog video forms of CP we have endured for years. If you want to throw your self on the HDCP sword go right ahead but IMHO you will be missing out.

I’m sorry but the status quo of stereo PCM at 16/44, or lousy Dolby/DTS Multi-Channel is not Hi-rez. S/PDIF (coax /TOSLINK) just does not have the bandwidth to do what I would qualify as Hi-Rez audio. I’ve invested enough in SACDs to know that even a cheap player with “lowest bidder” parts can sound pretty impressive using the analog outputs. I can only imagine how good it would be if I could just use that cheap player as a transport and do all the processing and D/A in my Pre/Pro where I can spend more and use it for all my sources. Even if the new HD versions of Dolby and DTS are decoded in the player HDMI will still allow you to use, no, actually require you to use external DACs. I just don’t see the downside here.

Is your issue with HDCP just based on fair usage? As far as copy protection schemes go HDCP is fairly unobtrusive when it comes to audio. I guess what I’m saying is if the studios are willing to give me a quality product that is significantly better then what is out I will give up some degree of fair usage. To be honest I’d be content with HDMI 1.2 as it does pretty much everything I would want. If they want to add 1080P at 60fps let them but I’ll probably still be using my analog CRT for another 20 years.