Drive Bel Canto, Marsh amp with OPPO 970?

Yes the all the Oppo's have variable out and it sounds darn good. You can send picture to your TV from your Oppo and a variable sound signal to your amp for volume control for CD, SACD, DVD, movies.

What you can't do is send a signal from your TV to your amp w/o at least a passive preamp (or audio switcher if your TV has variable output)

Try this for two channel stereo, connect one channel into the Oppo front output and the other into the Oppo mixed output. The Oppo speaker configuration setup is for only front speakers. Significant audio improvements.

Soundmat,
I tried two outputs to see if the Oppo can handle it. The Oppo can't handle it.
The sound quality and volume suffer significantly if you use the stereo out and the L+R out simultaniously. You have to use one or the other only.