My friend just bough Philips 7300 today ($23xx)
He uses player to decode audio signal and pass to AV-Amp using 5.1 analog.
Feeling: Good audio quality (positioning/ details: even compared with 51FD/ 05FD)
7300 blu-ray reading speed is quite outstanding, not even faster than pioneer but even comparable to PS3.
According to my friend, the reading speed is even faster for 7300