I have only had this thing for a day, and haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but I just wanted to give my first impressions with it, especially the USB audio. I finally found this in a local B&M and when I asked about the USB port and they were clueless. I ordered it from ecost and the delivery went pretty smooth, took exactly one week, saved about $160 over other places I had seen it. My total order was over $500 so I didn't have to pay ecost's outrageous shipping charges, just a handling fee.

Well, after I got the speakers hooked up I connected a USB cable to my computer. There was no software that came with the receiver, but it did load two USB drivers off my windows98 SE disc. I had to go into control panel and set the multimedia playback to use any available device. If the receiver is on and set to USB AUDIO all the sound from my computer goes through the receiver and none through my pc speakers. When I turn off USB AUDIO on the receiver then sound comes out of my pc speakers again. It sounds very good and appears to work very well. The receiver itself has no control on the pc. I have tons of music on my computer and this is a great way to listen to it, plus this receiver has multi-room, multi-source so I can send my pc music, or internet radio, or any other pc sounds to some other room in the house. The remote control is rf, so it works throughout my house. My computer just happens to be real close to my home theater, so this is a very good match. I wish they would have also put a USB port on the back, the cable sticking out of the front isn't real attractive.

This is my first Dolby Digital/DTS receiver, so I can't say how well it works compared to other models, but it blows away the Pro Logic setup that I was using. It has lots of inputs and outputs, it even handles component video. The remote is quite large and intimidating, it is going to take some effort to get my wife to use it (that might be a good thing). I do wish it had DPL II, but I am happy so far (knock on wood).

Gumby