Mass market device? Niche device? We definitely see things differently thomaspf.
Is it geared for the mass market? Maybe. I would still venture to say that there are far more folks getting into HT that are still buying receivers than separates; that definitely is a mass market. I think audiocircle caters to the audiophile group but scour the other forums and there are far more folks buying receivers than separates so I wouldn't necessarily agree this is a 'mass market device'. Now if you say mass market that is gear toward more of a class of folks that want a great HT processor, then yes because in this group, there is a wealth of processors available.
Niche? There are scores of folks that are into processors that consider Bryston as well as Lexicon, Rotel, Krell, Arcam, Anthem, Halo, etc. There are many factors that go into buying such a device. Perhaps for us Bryston enthusiasts we want the processor that sounds the best and does an equally superb job for 2-channel but most folks would buy Bryston because of other factors besides this 'niche' you are referring to. I happen to be in the same niche as you because I wanted the very best of both worlds but as a whole, I'd disagree this is a 'niche' product. I guarantee you that the folks owning the new Anthem D1 as well as those owning the Arcam AV8 would argue this to death.
I couldn't answer definitively one way or the other if adding HDCD is easy or not but again, how many discs are out there with this encoding? I owned a Rotel RSP-1098 and while I owned several HDCD encoded discs, I did not buy the 1098 because it had the decoding capability. And when I wanted to upgrade, it never crossed my mind when I considered the SP 1.7, the Arcam AV8, or the Anthem D1 whether they had the capability or not. Rotel does it for a marketing ploy I believe and they want to be everyone's best value. And while Bryston is considering digital-to-digital format for multi-channel audio, that is nowhere on Rotel's radar screen.
I believe Bryston is on the right track with what they have planned. I couldn't say I wouldn't want HDCD but again, given the small market of HDCD discs, I highly doubt they'll spend the money on this.
Jim