Will the Big Ben improve the 24 MXL?

Sutts
Which statement are you referring to? "Better looking" or "being equal to"? JO said himself that the upgrade will accomplish.

I'm sure Sutts is talking tongue-in-cheek about the looks of the unit.

RCP
Did JO like the 5.2 or the 5.7 digital cable? I was thinking of the Forsell before i lucked-out on the Oracle which i'm thinking of having it modded by GNSC. A problem that i'll face is that, all my equipment will be new: Merlin's, ASL amp/pre, upgraded dac and cables. I'm not going to know what item is doing what! Can you recommend any cheap tubes for burn-in purposes?

Tabl10s: Don't think he suggested a version, I'm just going froma prior thread. Sutts just got the 5.7 and his initial posting was to rave about how much better it was than anything else he'd tried. As far as tubes go, take the stock ones for now. Sovteks actually sound decent in the unit (a nice full-bodied sound), as well as Philips, and they'll tide you over till you're ready to do some serious tube-rolling.

Tabl10s, Stealth Varidig AES/EBU does sound very sweet with the 24mxl. I will however have to 2nd Sutts on the Marigo Labs Apparition 5.7 as being the best Coaxial digital I have tried. My Transport for now that I'm really enjoying is the small scale Northstar 192 top loading transport, which uses the Philips CD Pro 2 drive just as Accustic Arts Drive, MBL, Sim Audio, etc. I needed something that would fit atop my rack with my TT, as I have run out of space. I did want to stay with CEC, but as Parasound dropped the service contract on them on 12/31/04 the Philips CD Pro 2 seemed more rugged for the long haul in my opinion?