anyone compare HD DD w/ DVD to 1.3a receiver in?

Yup. Agreed. Pretty consistent. Exceptions when the equipment is ill-matched.

Kal

This is an interesting topic relevant to what I'm going through now. Though there are many HDMI 1.3 receivers on the market, only few produce good sound quality IMHO, and it seems most of the HDMI pre/pros short of $3k have their quirks and problems (i.e. popping noises when switching inputs).

There are 2 options. 1: Get a good HDMI receiver and a cheaper digital player. 2: Get an older high quality preamp for the same price, but a more costly analog player.

In my case, after being unsatisfied with the NAD T175, I'm getting a Proceed AVP2+6 and anticipate using it with a Panasonic DMP-BD55K, or the new Oppo player, should it come out in time.

Are you suggesting that passing a digital stream HDMI into the pre/pro/receiver should consistently produce significantly higher quality sound than letting the player decode and do analog conversion? If so, I have reason to be concerned... Although, I can't see where the difference is besides the DAC and THX processing (which I rarely use).

That is what I am saying but within reasonable price/performance windows.

First, I am speaking of multichannel primarily but the observations apply to 2 channels as well.

Second, the Oppo/Integra combo was better via HDMI than analog and so was the Oppo/Anthem combo although the difference was smaller.

Third, both processors were superior with the Oppo than via analog from more expensive players.

Fourth, I do believe that the advantages of the room EQ in those processors tilted the preferences strongly in favor of digital input over analog.

Kal