I have had a number of digital sources hooked up to my DSP8000`s, I was never able to tell the difference with CD playback. This is a credit to the upsampling and the smoothing that happens inside a Meridian speaker. I have ordered a G68, and then I will have one more Meridian device to smooth out the bits. I think I could hear the difference between a DVD-A disk played on my Meridian 598 at 96k/24bit in stereo and a high end Sony device that had to down sample to 48k/24bit because of the lack of encryption. The difference was very small and the music sounded very good at 48k/24bit. This would be the only down side with a Media Center design, and one that I could live with given how often I listen to DVD-A. I think people trust their eyes more than their ears, have your local high end video store demo your favorite TV with two very differently priced DVD players with DVI out. Try a blind test to see if you can tell the difference, most people will believe there eyes.

Now just because I have not been able to hear the difference between different digital sources does not mean that I will buy the cheapest. It may be that the reason that I have not heard the difference is that I do try to buy very good equipment. I am still looking for a high quality audio card for my next attempt at a Sound Server / Media Center. If anyone has any idea`s let me know. I am willing to spend $1,000 or more, but I want something that is configurable so that once it is installed I get to take full advantage of the digital output without any hassles. I would like an audio card that has three digital coax outputs that will feed into a G68: L/R, SURR, C/LFE.