As an extension of this, I wanted to use my PC as the DVD transport, fed the digital signal into a processor (whether a surround decoder or just a DAC depending upon the implementation) and from there into a good pre-amp stage.

Any hints?

The standard line from the guys at Audio Concepts here in Dallas is that the standalone processors are more expensive because of the high quality of components. That's probably true to a point, but I suspect most of the additional cost is due to licensing fees that are easy to offset in the high volume world of receivers, rather than the relatively low vaolume world of seperates.

Yeah, the dev kit would open an entire world of decoding, processing, converting, etc. My pipedream project is to develop a power speaker system with an amp dedicated to each driver fed by an active digital crossover that handles not only the frequency distribution (for lack of a better word) but also the phase and time sync for the drivers. That way the amps are matched to the frequency range of each driver (removing many of the compromises that have to be made in amp design) and driver placement/configuration is more flexible. But to do that, I need a DSP that is relatively easy to program and still accomplish what I need. The processor would include a high rez A/D so that I could use analog sources as well.

The Pi 7's that I'm getting ready to finally build are intended to be a first step in getting to the point where the pipedream project can be realized.