Moon Nova or Eclipse?

Golden Ears- point well taken. Well, all is not lost- Costa finally DID get back to me. The answer was as I suspected- the Attraction is still the sonic champ (superior dacs, etc.), but newer Stargate has more options...

My two cents is that if you can afford the Eclipse (used around $2500.00), you won't be disappointed. In my system, it bested the Wadia 850, Audio Aero Cap mk 2, and most recently, the Krell SACD standard (not sure what Fremer and Valin heard when they reviewed it). The Eclipse does everything right to my ears; expansive, open and detailed soundstage, tonally natural (whatever that means!), taut and tuneful bass, extended highs, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, buy what you can afford and keep what sounds best to you. Good luck!

Mthieme:

I hear you on the dealer's "elitist" point of view. Saying crap like "decent digital" starts at $5K. I've heard very good players at around $2000 and I bet there are cheaper players or DACs that can do wonderful music, for less than that.(Bel Canto DAC2, Perpetual Technologies, etc...)

I'm going to say something controversial here, but I think Audiophiles have done more to alienate people from this hobby than anyone else could do. Some audiophiles are flat out weird, in my opinion. They can listen to music only if its being played by a gazillion dollar system. If its a "real world" system they won't even consider it. As if the gear is more important than the music. Which is why I don't consider myself an audiophile, but a MUSIC LOVER instead.

Hell, I can listen to music on a boombox radio when I'm at the beach or working in the lab...even though I have a decent rig at home. But as I said, I love music more than I do the gear.

Anyway hope you have a lot of luck in your search for a CD Player. I'm in the process of upgrading my source and the Moon Nova is one I'm considering strongly...

Fire your dealer. He is putting his own interests ahead of yours. He does not deserve your business. Personally, I would contact Simaudio and relate your experience. I doubt Simaudio would be pleased with this authorized dealer's characterization of one of their (excellent) products. It's dealers like this chump who are killing the high end market. Who knows, maybe Simaudio will show their appreciation to you.