To revive an old thread, I have had the same wish list from Jriver. The only thing that keeps me from completley ditching my AVR is that I am an avid HTPC guy and listen to a lot of Pandora and watch a lot of Hulu and Netflix and really appreciate the PLIIx and other matrixing programs on my 7.1 system. And I am not happy with the current slate of soundcards and their complete lack of features. Jriver even has their JRSS matrixing program that could posssibly replace DPLIIx, however, even inside their "theater view," which allows you to watch both Hulu and Netflix from inside their console, you can not apply any DSP or JRSS matrixing. 2 channel only. If only I could select all audio through it, then I could use a high end pro card or firewire device such as the ones from RME. Just like that, my HTPC is a pre/pro with high quality DAC and a DSP system that not even the highest dollar preo/pros could match. Hell, I would boot straight into Jriver and have it behave like my operating system, and use theater view for all of my streaming needs, even casual browsing, if I could just utilize the DSP on all audio streams and not have to worry about what happens when I switch sources. I think they are missing the boat on this one big time. or perhaps its just not that easy. virtual soundcard like the SRS maybe?
Currently I am trying out an Audigy 2 ZS card and kX project drivers. working on a solution for the analog on these, but are you kidding me? this much DSP power was included on that card and a 10 band system EQ and a few environment effects were all they gave us in their drivers? rediculous. 8 channel routing via 4xSPDIF is an interesting prospect though.