The idea is to keep the digital data digital until after the processing is complete. Of course if you were forced to convert to analog, you could do some bass management processing with the Outlaw ICBM. But it's considered preferable to do bass management and in the digital domain, where possible. Ditto with time alignment. Yes some DVD players can do this in the digital domain before converting the signal to analog. But since bass management and time alignment processing is probably already done in your receiver or pre/pro anyway for DTS and Dolby Pro Logic, it's more convenient to it for DVD-A and SACD there using the same settings and calibration procedures. Or you could set up and calibrate using the DVD player as well. The DVD player may not have all the bass managemnent and time alignment features your pre/pro or receiver has.

The price of just the one 1394 cable for i.link is often less than the cost of just one of the (better) analog interconnect cables.