Maybe at this point you should just get a new receiver? There are plenty of nice ones for < $500. Your wife will get some snazzy new AV features and won't have to tolerate an extra box to boot.
Suspect so. I emailed back and forth with Ayre a while ago asking if they were considering a universal player/DAC combo. The answer was no, but we will probably eventually have a high-end stand alone DAC, though it will cost a lot more than the QB-9.