Thom_y,
I am aware of the fact, that the DCC2 has an inbuild preamp. The problem with DCC2 (or AA Capitole for that matter) is that it sounds much better through an external preamp (preferebly tubed one) than direct. That was my experience, anyway.
So I would like to get a preamp first, and then look into the Meitner combo again.
Cytocycle,
Thanks for the sugestion. A close friend of mine has the Jeff Synergy II, so I think I will borrow it from him for a couple of days and listen for myself.