Mark - that's an excellent point. You may be right.

mDrew, good advice. It does. All of those plus DSD via HDMI, including 192khz PCM. Even though at the moment I don't have any sources that can pass high-res audio via HDMI. I didn't realize that the PS3 can only do DTSHD & DDHD via PCM - minor bummer.

Like I've said, the SQ of the Pio is making me want to keep it. When I sit back and just enjoy the music, its 'happiness-quotient' is very high. And there's the added bonus that the LPA could be eBayed, as it's unnecessary.

But its features *are* lacking, and that impacts on the overall enjoyment for me a bit. It shouldn't, but it does. The global xover is a big one, and one of about a half dozen 'quirks' that makes me want to continue my search. While I have mostly recovered from my no-HDMI-upconversion panic attack, there are still other irritations such as no F/W updates, no HD radio, no OSD of volume/source, and slightly erratic MCACC. All of that together clouds the decision a bit.

Nah, I won't go insane. ;\) At least, any more than I already am. This is part of my 'big-ticket' purchasing process. A salesman's worst nightmare, I suppose. If I have high expectations of how something should work, I'm not going to give up on finding that ideal product until I've exhausted all of my options within the budget amount. Especially with something like this that I fully intend to keep for 5-6+ years. Other than the manual labor of moving AVR's and re-connecting all of my gear, it's fun.

Last edited by PeterChenoweth; 03/19/09 03:35 PM.
M80v2 | VP150v2 | QS8v2
SVS Pci+ 20-39
Emotiva UMC-1 & LPA-1
M22ti + T-Amp, in the Office