No, I understand the process all-right. Sure, you can use the 950's (or the MC-12's) analog bypass if you want, but then you lose out on all the enhancements your processor can give you, such as time-alignment and, in the MC-12's case, bass management, surround processing, and more.

Sure, I could run my 10Ts full-range through my MC-12's analog bypass, but then what's the point of a surround processor at all? Why not just hook the SACD player directly to my amplifiers?

The fact that there's a cheesy workaround doesn't absolve the recording industry from this travesty. DVD-A and SACD are digital media, and forcing a conversion to analog simply to prevent bit-perfect copies is a terrible solution that severely handicaps the quality of what you're getting.

Anyway, maybe there are some SACDs or DVD-As that sound better than a conventional CD piped through Logic-7. I've only listened to three or four DVD-As in my home, and no SACDs, so I'm not the best judge. However, those that I've listened to sounded better -- but not significantly better -- than standard CDs with Logic 7.

But those are just my impressions. Your mileage may vary.

But getting back to the original subject, whether inputs for SACD/DVD-A is a sine quae non really is opieie's decision. If it's important to him, that rules out the MC-1. If it's not, that makes the MC-1 his best bet.

Speaking of whom, Mr. O's been conspicuously silent recently. Opieie, you still reading this thread?

Jeff