Thanks to those who answered my questions.
Jetson, Sorry,I highjacked your thread for 24 hours.
Zd542. I don't agree with you much on the issue of reviewers veracity, or the accuracy of their evaluations. However, I think it is not entirely foolish to get some insight from them about many components. The current world of audio is not some medieval fair where all prodicts are brought to market to be tasted and tried.
I live in Hawaii which is the backwaters of audio in USA, so there are limited opportunities to audition the upper level audiophile products that are not off the chart in price.
Actually, I have heard the Apollo-R 3 times, and it sounded very good. However, whether it surpassed the original player is hard to tell and I did not want to bring it home for comparison. Maybe, I should have.
However, in some instances your point is well taken. Some reviewers are either stone cold deaf or are just shilling for the product submitted to them for evaluation.