Yes you are correct. The Oppo 970 HD is an excellant alternative. I forgot about it. The 970 outputs lpcm over HDMI. BTW I emailed Oppo to ask which player they recommended for SACD and DVDA use. They recommended the 970 rather than the 981!

I opted for the DVD-2930 because it can output DSD. I let my 4806 do the conversion. The 4806 probably does a little better with the conversion but I doubt it makes much difference.

Thanks for pointing out the price. It is indeed a steal.

maphiker