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Here's my dilemma: Our local community theater stages mostly plays and musicals. They have a small theater with what amounts to a 5.1 surround system (L,R,C,RR,LR,LFE) permanently installed. They use this primarily for sound effects and music cues in plays and sound reinforcement in musicals. They have a desktop PC to run their SFX cues and a Focusrite 18i20 USB interface to route the sound to their console which then routes the audio to their 6 active speakers through balanced +4 Db lines. All this works fine and sounds lovely. Now, they have decided to fill in some gaps in their schedule with "Family Movie Nights." They have contracted with Swank for the public performance rights of the "films" and Swank will provide the media in the form of a blu-ray DVD. I want to help them make the right choices in terms of playing that media from their current system. They have, as of yet, not purchased a blu-ray player and they have essentially three choices: 1.) A stand-alone DVD player 2.) Add a USB DVD player 3.) Add an internal player I have found no stand-alone DVD players with professional output levels and interfacing consumer gear into this console is somewhat problematic so this is not my first choice. An external USB DVD would be the best solution because it would mean zero downtime for their computer. An internal player is possible, but properly interfacing the drive with the motherboard is always a challenge. (FWIW--MoBo is MSI -7693) Regarding playback from a PC, what I am most unclear about is the middleware that will allow us to route the audio from the DVD to the 18i20 to get the audio to the console (SFAIK--there is no "surround decoder" in the 18i20. It will need discrete channels.). What software is best to use to play the show? We, of course, would also like the drive to be reliable (and rugged) so your thoughts on brand and model would be greatly appreciated. I am also wondering if there are any DRM compatibility issues that are distinct to audio that I should worry about or if that is all handled in the DVD device. So what say ye? Am I doomed or is there an easy answer?

I'm new to this forum and very impressed by all the comments. Truly appreciate your guidance on the following matter, since I'm feeling a bit lost, without knowledgeable advice so far. Since ~2 years I'm the (proud) owner of a Sonus Connect, connected via coax to an external DAC (Cambridge Audio Azur 851C). Resolution limitations of the Sonus are known. Now that I'm willing to jump up to 24/192 source files, I've given a look into the Bluesound Node 2. I've been reading that its internal DAC has high quality and is capable of great sounding. My doubt is: if I choose a Node 2, will my Cambridge Audio become redundant/unnecessary (besides the ability to play CDs, of course) in my system? Would I get the same (or even better) high quality result if I use the Bluesound's analog output to connect directly to my Unison amplifier? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Hello, I own a Denon 3312 and I am enjoying it very much. I use Zone 1 primarily as my TV room (5.1) and Zone 2 as my 2 channel audio listening through my Boston Acoustics towers (American made before they went offshore!). I have the Denon networked with Ethernet connected between Denon and Router. It works very well controlling music wirelessly on my Ipad or Iphone using an app called DeRemote. Sometimes I use Airplay compatible music Apps like Songza, Slacker, etc. My music collection is on my Asus laptop using JRiver as my Music Server. Most of my files on my computer are wave or flac burned from my original CD's (many of which I've sold since). No complaints about audio dropout as it is working great from that respect I would just like to maybe improve the sound quality a bit. I don't know if JRiver is doing anything with the sound as I don't control my music from JRiver and I use the DLNA and select music from my Ipad or phone. My laptop is not connected directly to my Denon or router so the files are being transmitted wirelessly off the laptop to the Denon. I am assuming they are going through the soundcard on the Asus and must be compressed to send to the Denon Wirelessly? and then through the DAC in the Denon and then sound is output analogue? I have the Denon set to Restorer High Quality. My questions are as follows: Would having my laptop connected via Ethernet cable to the router make any difference in sound quality vs. wirelessly? If I had an external DAC (USB) of reasonable quality attached to my Laptop and Denon is there an option to bypass the Internal DAC of the Denon when playing in Zone 2? If I connected RCA from the DAC to the Denon what would happen to this analogue signal? Would it bypass the Denon DAC as the signal is already analogue or is this not how it works? Would any of this make a difference in audio quality from my current setup? Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. I read about jitter, noise etc from laptop soundcards and how good some of these external DACs are but how much would I have to spend to notice a sound difference from the one in the Denon 3312? I am willing to spend some money on equipment I just don't want it to be a waste of money. External DAC? Good soundcard in Laptop? Music Server with storage? Thanks for your help in advance, Sorry if any of my questions or statements don't make perfect sense. Mark