I have a laptop that I rip my CD's to the lossless WMA files to then run a Behringer U-Control from the laptop USB. The Behringer box has a optical audio out that I connect to the 970. No need for a monitor as I can look at the laptop screen or I could runn a DV cable to the 970 and see the menu, pics or video on TV. The sound quality is very good.

I noticed that there are two different audio devices that show up in the advanced speaker config. One is the Behringer USB, which is what the laptop chooses when I plug the usb cable into the center USB port (in the back of laptop). And USB Audio CODECS which is used if I plug into the other two USB ports. The USB Audio CODECS is a bit better.