[vdossant]

I'm trying to set up a system that will be good for CDs as well as DVDs.  I purchased a McIntosh MVP851 player.  The pre/pro is Proceed's PAV/PDSD.  The amps are Odyssey Audio.  So what's the best way to connect?  I could go digital-in to the PDSD, with balanced or unbalanced outs to the amps.  My concern is that given the age of the PDSD, its DACs may not be as good as the ones built into the McIntosh.  The PDSD has 20-bit multibit DACs for all channels.  The McIntosh has one two-ch 192kHz/24-bit DAC and three 96kHz/24-bit DACs.  So should I just go from the McIntosh to the PAV using analog cables and circumvent the PDSD?  If so, will I miss out on anything that the PDSD would've done?

[audioengr]

If you want the best CD audio, avoid the processor.  It will convert the audio to digital and back to analog, and the DAC's aren't that good.  I would run a glass Toslink to it from your DVD player for movies and then use the coax out on the DVD player to go to a decent DAC and then a good analog preamp.  Then connect the analog preamp to the Proceed and use the analog preamp "bypass" mode when watching movies to get the left and right front sound.  This is what I do.

The other thing that is important is acoustics.  When you put a screen in between the LF and RF speakers, this will kill the image - UNLESS you buy a couple of 1/4 round tube-traps from ASC.  THen you can position tune these to get a good stereo image.  I have spoken to ASC about this technique.