What's your view on the significance of DSD to analog conversion at the processing/receiving point (vs. player conversion to PCM before passing signal)?

If you rely upon any sort of bass crossover, time alignment, equalization, or room correction for optimal playback, you're going to have to convert to PCM to do any of that processing (well, some players/receivers can do the crossover without the conversion).

If the receiver can perform any of those tasks on a DSD feed, it's turning it to PCM first. If those features are not available when feeding DSD, and you'd like to be able to use them, it's beneficial to have a player which can do the conversion.

Personally, I don't like the technology behind DSD, I don't see how it can be a benefit. It has a slewrate (PCM can go from 0 to max in one sample), and it can't store a DC signal (the closest it can approximate is a 1-bit triangle wave at 1.4 MHz). Sure, it is a closer approximation of an analog source, but when working digitally I don't see why that is a good thing.

DSD converted to 172.4 KHz (even 88.2) 24-bit PCM should be virtually indistinguishable.