New CDP or standalone DAC...?

@mesch, 57 here. With age comes wisdom!
@2psyop, very good point. I subscribe to both TAS and 'phile and agree there is definite bias within those pages. I try to remind myself to remember they are written by humans, just like all of us on this forum, with all our baggage, opinions and biases. Interesting about Oppo products, people either love em or not. Not much middle ground, it seems. Since I like the sound of my 103, I'm thinking I'll probably like the 205. I know their "house sound" isn't everyone's cup of tea. Thank you for your response, and your suggestions.

Wow, just read your second post. Like what I'm reading. Very interested in MQA. Will definitely look into that further...

Thank you for that info about the Node2!

Tomcarr, as far as I saw, nobody wrote anything about your amp. I had that Krell S 300 few days at my home, friend brought it just for comparasion, to see how it sounds hooked with my gear. Please dont get me wrong, but it is very poor integrated amp, not by its power, but because of its sound. It has quite 'veiled' sound, like its high frequencies are cut off. At the time I had Sonus Faber Guarneri,,Burmester 001 player, with top Nordost cables and still the sound was like the speakers were covered with light blanket. My sugestion, if you dont mind me saying  this, is to change that amp first and than look for another source if you still need one.

@alexatpos , very interesting! This is actually my 2nd unit. The first one I returned due to an odd noise at turn-on coming from within the unit itself, not from the speakers. I was sent another new  one I'm currently using. Interestingly, through two different sets of speakers (Monitor Audio Silver 8s and Vandersteen 2Cs) the sound is decidedly tipped-up! Lots of treble energy, air, detail, spatial cues, soundstaging. I'm using Anticables, true bi-wired. Nothing veiled at all about the sound. Sorry to hear it didn't sound good in your system, just proves again you never know how a piece of gear will sound in your system until it's in your system.

Tom