Well, I have made the plunge. I just couldn't wait any longer for the 997. I found 886 here in town for a good price and I went for it.

Now my questions will begin. If I understand the manual correctly both "Pure Audio" and "Direct" modes will not apply any processing to the incoming analog audio signal. Therefore, any room correction will have to be done by my BDP-83 prior to sending it out the analog outputs. Is that correct? If so, could I just use all the information that 886 room correction process measured, i.e. speaker distances and db levels?

OK, maybe I need to backup a second. How do the 886 DACs compare to the BDP-83's DACs? Is it possible that I would be getting better SQ sending DSD (listen to a lot of SACD) or PCM bit stream via HDMI and letting the 886 decode? Would that apply to both the multi-channel and the stereo outputs as the stereo ones are quite clearly (at least to my ears) better sounding. For that matter, how about the BDP-83SE (I was thinking of upgrading) compared to the 886's DACs, would I get better SQ if I went that route? After all, if it turns out the 886 has the best DACs of them all it would make more sense to stay with the BDP-83 and use HDMI. BTW, just to be clear, I have been referring to the DACs in these units, but I really think I should be looking at the analog output stages as a whole.

Thank You in advance for any comments you can provide.