>>The 861 is a reference product, Meridian do DIGITAL, Meridian do MLP what possible benefit is there to Meridian or it's reputation by adding analogue passthrough? Especially is you are digital theatre, plus your passing analogue from todays current players, I think not.

If the content owners feel that the only way to protect their IP is to force analogue outputs then I for one will not be buy a SACD player anytime ever.

Is it just me that thinks analogue passthrough on a 861 is about as stupid as you can get (especially for SACD), Meridian may prove me wrong of course and I'll be eating these words(-: <<

Well, dCS is indeed using the SACD Firewire Standard in their SACD products (the Elgar Plus out now has the Firewire In and the upcoming dCS SACD Transport will have up to 8 channels of Firewire SACD digital out.) So SACD with Firewire Digital Out will be available for those who want/need it.

The newer Sony Multichannel/Stereo SACD players are coming out with speaker/bass mgmt built in. So that may address the portion of the market that wants digital out primarily for that purpose.

As for Multichannel Analog Bypass, Lexicon has it in their new processors. And Tag just announced it as an enhancement for their processors.

Will Meridian be the sole processor maker that hold out re: this feature? We'll see.