The UMC-1 should be coming out in a couple months here as they are saying before the end of the year. If you want surround sound I would certainly recommend going with the XPA-5 and the UMC-1 or you could get the UPA-7 as well it's just a step below the XPA series. The UMC-1 is going to be 699 initial price which will be quite amazing as its going to use Dual Cirrus Logic chips which is the only one that is capable of fully manipulating the new HD formats. There are a couple other processors coming out that uses this but they are at least twice as much and many of them are only using a single chip. So if you can swing the 1500 dollar price which isn't much for a nice 5 channel amp and pre/pro with those features then I would certainly recommend it. Or if you need to go a little cheaper (although not much) then the UPA-7 is certainly an option.
Edit: You could definitely run the amp directly from the Oppo for now and I don't see why it wouldn't be safe.
Edit: You could definitely run the amp directly from the Oppo for now and I don't see why it wouldn't be safe.
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