So I finally completed my setup. This is my first stereo setup ever, it was assembled with new and used equipment and consists of:

B&W 683 speakers
Adcom GFA5300 amp
Musical Fidelity E20 preamp
Rega P1 Turntable

After coming to the conclusion that being able to purchase a $6000 CD player was not a reality, and doing a lot of research online, I purchased the Sony 5400ES-SACD player. I have a lot of SACD's so trashing them and replacing them was not an option for me.

The 5400 has both unbalanced and balanced outputs along with HDMI output. The remote is simple and the display has several options including the option to turn it off. The machine is clean and functional in design.

Total drag.

Maybe they'll go direct to consumer.

They always struck me as trying to deliver the best value they could.

There were some really interesting bits of commentary this month!

To wit:

1) Kal Rubinson described the effect of an amplifier's sound on his sytem, while it wasn't 'installed' in his sytem.

Not earthshakingly amazing, but he mentioned that the original Bel Canto Ref1000 amplifiers could be plugged in to an outlet in his room, and not connected to his gear, yet they generated noise that was audible in his system, and that this noise was eliminated by line filters.

Nice point of embarkation to talk about filters and power conditioning!

When I was in the Air Force and stationed in England we used to purchase our audio stuff at the Audio club. I had a Pioneer SX 1010 amp with JBL Century 100 speakers and an Akai 285 auto reverse reel to reel. At the time Akai was famous for it's "glass head". We used to put all our albums on reel to reel tape. I even remember going to Sam Goody after I got out and finding prerecorded reel to reel tapes !!!