The BDP-83 does represent a path for anyone with a good non-HDMI receiver or processor to avoid "needing" to buy an HDMI front end. It's something that I've been hoping would appear at some point, and I've been a little surprised to see how little activity there has been for support of DVD-Audio and SACD on Blu-ray players (even from companies like Denon and Pioneer that have done a lot with both formats in the past). If I were to pair a BDP-83 with a Model 997, I'd certainly look to let the BDP-83 retain responsibility for video processing - the Reon is good, but the general consensus I've seen has been that the ABT solution is a bit better.