just a quick note about system matching. Over the weekend I took my orchid up to my brothers place. In his system he has a rega CD player and an audible illusions preamplifier. One of their newer ones. Feeding into a big beefy parasound Power Amp and a pair of rega speakers. Don't know exactly which ones they are, but they're about 10 years old and they were around $1,500 a pair when they were new. Overall it's pretty good sounding system. But what I noticed was that in his system the Orchid really didn't sound that sweet. It sounded good, it sounded better than the DAC that came standard with the rega CD player but didn't sound nearly as smooth as what I'm hearing in my system. So I guess I am really in violent agreement with those who emphasize the criticality of system matching. If this had been the only exposure I had to the mhdt Orchid I would not have been impressed.