[JCBigler]

I'm not sure that anyone in Avid even knows what Dante is.

Their sole Dante product is that expansion card for the MTRX, which was probably built by the DAD people in the first place.

And then there's the fact that probably non one in the Avid marketing department has ever done any sort of audio production at all, so why would they even have a clue what the current state of the technology is.

When I moved up from vanilla to Ultimate and HD Native, I knew what I was getting in to and what it would take financially to get there. I managed to find deals on everything, even the Red 8Pre (although it took almost 2 months for it to arrive because my vendor was back ordered). The DigiLink I/O license was the only thing that I had to pay full retail price for. And I agree it's stupid. Even more stupid that you still have to buy it if you buy the Avid HD I/O hard ware.