Vincent Products

Thank you all for the input. My plan would be to use the Vincent CD-S1.1 as a CD transport for my Benchmark DAC1 and listen to HDCDs via the Vincent's hybrid output on balanced outputs.

I gave up on finding a good used HDCD player with balanced outputs. Too many had tracking and reading problems. Some can't handle CD-Rs or CD-RWs. Others are really high end and quite expensive and, therefore, obviate the need for an external DAC.

I still have my eye open for a Rotel 990 or 991 though. I noticed one here on A'gon. Hmmmmmm

I was looking through the latest audio advisor mag and was interested in the vincent sp-331 power amp, has a tube input stage with a solid state output. The thing is that the tubes are 6N16, which are a small Chinese variety. In addition to this they are hardwired to the circuit board and if they need to be replaced I was told the unit would have to be sent to the service center in Michigan. I did a google on 6n16 tubes and found nothing except that they appear to be used only in vincent products. Not all vincent products use the 6n16, I believe their top of the line cdp uses a "standard" sized tube. The gear looks nice, I did not ask about warranty length.

I got a pair of monoblocks VINCENT SP-991Plus and the S3 (HDCD compatible) CD player. Both are great stuff, perfectly finished and sounding like the best electronics out there, but at a fraction of Mark Levinson or CLASSÉ prices. At the prices given, this brand is a steal!