upgrade your preamp by $1500 - it will give ewe the best overall sonic improvement, imho. go w/a tubed unit. it will also have the added benefits of improving any other sources you may be using. going from a linn kairn to a melos music director mad a *big* improvement to all my sources, especially cd. w/this unit, i could discern no differences between my $500 nad cd-changer, & a $1700 alchemist cd player. my brother-in-law noticed only miniscule changes when going from the alchemist cd player to a resolution audio cd-50, but *huge* changes when going from his alchemist preamp to an a-r ls-16. doug