The Marantz 8003 is a little low on processing horsepower. For example: when dealing with the hi-rez codecs, it can either decode them or add processing to them, but not both.

So if you send it a TrueHD or DTS-MA signal, you can decode it to PCM but can't apply PLIIx to expand 5.1 to 7.1. IF you need PLIIx or EX/ES functionality, then the signal needs to be decoded to PCM in the player before transmitting.

Same problem with newly released Cary Audio 11a pre-pro. Hopefully, the Outlaw 997 won't be saddled with this limitation.