That was the plan, since they had upper end lines for years before that model came out. The Audio Lab line was between the consumer line and Esprit, which was their high-end line and they also had the PCM-F1 PCM recorder, which also had S/PDIF out. These were designed, as were most other CD players with that output, to be connected to the new models of preamps and receivers that also had this. I don't remember them offering a stand-alone DAC in the consumer line.