reasonably priced HTPC

[welwynnick]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

As for my receiver, I'll try to remember to look when I get home tonight. It's several years old, and badly needing to be replaced. But I love the sound it puts out, and am waiting for the Denon BD players come out to upgrade to a new Denon receiver with HD audio support.

many thanks for the XP / Vista summary.

The reason I asked about your receiver is that there can't be that many "old" 7.1 Sony ES receivers. I immediately thought of the DA7100ES and DA9000ES, which are both 7 channel, and came out a few years ago. They also have i-Link inputs, which are great for (SA)CD / DVD players with iLink outputs.

I mention this is because iLink is just an IEEE1394 interface with the A&M protocol. Considering your interest in HTPCs, I wondered if you had heard of the i-Link driver that someone on AVS had developed recently, that enabled a PC to act as the transport to those amps. It's a fascinating opportunity because the flow control protocol effectively renders the source and interface jitterless. There is still jitter within the amp, but not much, and the result is quite wonderful.

best regards, Nick