I listen to music with mpd and send the audio straight to my USB DAC like this: audio_output { type "alsa" name "Wavelength Proton" device "hw:0,0" } It sounds great, a lot better than letting dmix resample to any rate I have tried, even with libsamplerate's best algorithm. I've tried doing the same thing with mplayer: mplayer -ao alsa:device=hw=0.0 -format s24le video.mkv but the result is a somewhat muddy sound, especially with Blu-Rays. It sounds like dmix has gotten involved. Last night I tested mplayer, gmplayer, and vlc with The Princess Bride on Blu-ray. The sound was muddy with mplayer and vlc. gmplayer sounded crisp and clear but the dialog was missing, I could only hear the movie's soundtrack. After that I realized the 6-channel movie audio must be downmixed for my 2-channel DAC which must be where the sound is being fouled up. Does anyone have any suggestions? I like to leave the digital audio untouched but I suppose 6 channels need to be downmixed to 2 channels digitally. - Grant