My new dvd/cd player has the HDCD feature. At their web site they say that I can still get sonic improvements even without having a HDCD encoded CD but I have to use the analog out from the player to the receiver. I guess the filtering process will improve all cd's and dvd's. Well I did that and my normal cd's do sound pretty good but they sound way better when I go into the dvd menu, change the PCM digital output, from up to 48khz, up to 96khz and send the signal out of the player through the digital output to my denon 1804. The sound is truely amazing. In the dvd menu I also tried the 192 khz setting but my denon was not able to handle that high of a sampling rate, 96 khz I guess is my denon's limit. When I use to listen to 2-channel music with my old (very old) dvd/cd player through the digital out, my denon would say direct and I could change it to dts neo or dpl music if I so chose. With my new player with the changes I made in the dvd menu my denon now says direct 96k on the display and dts neo and dpl music mode are not an option anymore. The HDCD website convinces you that you will get great sound with any cd whether HDCD encoded or not but I get way better sound the other way. I don't have any HDCD encoded cd's so I can't comment on those, just regular cd's. I know what sounds best to me but should it. I mean when my player up samples to 96khz and I use the digital out it absolutley stomps on the sound through the analog outs with this so called improvement from the HDCD filtering. Does anyone have any comments on why one way sounds so much better then the other.