also, could it be i have the polk xrt XM tuner on my system connected to my 970 with optical, and my ipod connected with analog cables and music from the ipod sounds better then the XM. i would think that the XM would sound better because its using the 970 dacs but it seems the ipod puts out better sound. i know niether is the best but strange i thought given the optical hook up and the inherent flaws of both. i have a PS3 in my system also and the CD player seems to put out worse sound then my little ipod (and my songs are not even lossless). Could this all be? does the PS3 have lossy CD output?