I'm aware of the 5400 only having stereo outs besides the HDMI. My point was that the 5400 or any other cd player can be hooked up to the 5.1 input volume card just using the stereo outs and bypassing the internal DACS of the processor, which would let you use the processing power of the cd player. Of course you will only get 2 channel sound this way, which I understand. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks again!