Thanks for the responses. I'd already considered the Denon 1600 digital output limitation by ordering a Toslink splitter to allow me to take the digital output from the 1600 and feed it both to the 5.1 input of the 950 and to the DAC-1. It hadn't even occurred to me to use the 950 as a "splitter" (now there's ANOTHER permutation I'll need to try out!). Come tax refund time I'm already considering an upgrade to the 2900/5900.

To Paratrooper's point, 2CH from the 950 isn't bad, but I did see a noticeable improvement by using the 950 passthrough and the 1600's DACs to do the D/A conversion. And since this whole hobby/obsession/addiction (for me at least) is about getting the best possible sound and picture given our respective budgets, it seems a worthwhile use of time to try out whatever tweaks I find out about. Simple economics would suggest to me that I'm going to get better stereo sound from a $850 dedicated DAC than by using the stock stereo DACs inside a $500 DVD player (that probably contributed $50-100 max to the price of the player).

I suppose I'll find out in a week or so, and Benchmark has a 30-day return policy so the risk is limited.