Hmmm...I bought another 970 during the sale and have it hooked up via trigger to the 7500. The amp does the same thing as John F and XenonMan report...about a 3 second delay before sound starts and about 30 seconds til the blue light switches on. I noticed before when I had my Oppo hooked up direct it basically did the same thing...though I had to manually turn on the amp. I thought this was normal with the 7500...maybe not??? I don't remember this issue with the 7125 or 7075. I also noticed noise from the amp when connected direct when a cd was ending or beginning tracks...like a little pfff. Don't notice that now with the 970, but I do have some hiss that I didn't have with the Oppo hooked up direct.