Nothing's perfect, certainly no AV kit with HDMI connections. I think HDMI is the work of the Devil himself, but if we want HD audio, we either need a great player with analogue outputs, or we have to find a way to work with HDMI.

AV systems always seem to suffer compared with pure stereo systems, and I think part of the answer is that we're not comparing like-with-like. Stereo systems aren't hamstrung with either analogue or digital video signals, processes or displays, but they are all intrinsic elements of modern AV systems. I find if you completely remove all the video-related elements of an AV system, it sounds better, but few people go to the trouble.

The HD621 itself is one of the solutions - it means the video processor or display is no longer connected directly to the controller. Having a player with two outputs adds another layer of protection. But they are only layers of protection, they're not isolation.

Just to rub salt in the wounds of the videophile, I found that simply having the HD621 connected caused a degradation to the SQ of a system that was configured to use SPDIF connections. You can't get away from the impact of all that with BD playback, but it still showed how SQ suffers when digital audio and video aren't fully separated.

Nick