@audio-b-dog - I spent very little money, especially compared to what my vinyl front end involves. Given my considerable pile of records, some quite rare and never issued beyond a first pressing on vinyl, as well as a large catalog of material I accumulated (I think I've mentioned I got rid of over 12,000 records between the move to Texas and a further culling once here), I'm not walking away from records. But the combo I described, which involves playing off a drive through a DDC using the I2s connection has really upped the quality considerably and none of the gear itself was expensive.
@inna - I had ARC stuff for decades but didn't need the power. For a while I used an unusual amp, the Audiopax 88, and I did meet with Kevin at one show (I don't do shows much anymore) and at the time I bought the Lamms, I only knew CAT for its preamp. The Lamms were magical and I also had the L2 line stage, a two chassis model with a solid state audio path and tube rectified power supply. When the manufacturer of Veloce came over, I passed on the first version, but loved the second version. Unfortunately, it uses the 6H30 and in its circuit, the old DR Reflector is substantially better than the modern production. My amps are very early and came through a trade from someone who was possibly Vlad's first dealer.
I doubt I'll ever get rid of them. And Vytas, who designed the Veloce, is still very much active. He worked as a technical director for OMA for a period but am informed that he has upgrades for the Veloce line stages. I just hate shipping gear. In NY metro, it was much easier b/c we could drive to several of the manufacturers for repair/check up.
