I end up buying
this on circuit city or best buy (I cannot tell the diff :-P). 40 bucks. It has a optical digital output. Though, you cannot find it anywhere on the prod. literature outside/inside the box. I found out by actually looking at the unit back panel.
I connected the thing to my denon 3300 using the optical cable and it work great , what a difference compared to the laptop headphone outs. The only thing is that it cannot play dts or dd5. just stereo PCM (I guess). But hey, if I want to play a dts dvd I'll use my, ...er dvd player ;-> For internet radio and playing mp3s is perfect. If you have broadband internet you should check internet radio, very good, unusual and refreshing stuff there, especially if you are into jazz, blues, or classical music. Just browsing the stations on MS Media player you can find tons of great stuff, and I'm sure there's plenty more out there on cyberspace.
John, I bought Bernstein (Sony 63086), excellent, thanks again. I'm listening more jazz now than classical, it's kinda of cyclical, I know I'll return to listening classical music again sooner or later.
Here's the station I'm listening most.
http://www.specialradio.ru/ They usually play a blend of good old jazz with some elements of blues/funk, most of the artist/band are unknown to me. The station sound is one of the best IMHO. It's Russian, you can find the station on media player under the name of Special Radio 10th Button (Moscow Russia) if your russian is not that good to follow the links on their web page :-P.
