Meridian digital gears

I have recently acquired a Meridian G68 processor for my multi channel music system. So far I have been pretty impressed with the digital section. The sound is very detailed and balanced. It's neither on the bright side, or warm side. It brings out tremendous amount of detail from redbook CD, and I'm going through my CD collection again.

Previously I was using California Audio Labs CL-15 for redbook, and Denon universal for SACD and DVD-Audio. My impression back then was the redbook through CAL was rich and musical, and high resolution format through Denon was detailed and more articulated.

Now G68 changed all that. The impression of redbook through G68 is almost as good as the high resolution through Denon that I was used to. It's just amazing to hear what a good DAC could do.

On the flip side, now there isn't really an easy way to get a proper SACD play back any more, thanks to A/D conversion on all the analog inputs. I have G98 on the way to cover the DVD Audio side, but it looks like I'm somewhat stuck with SACD side of the world. For one, G68XXV has all balanced output, and my Sony multi channel preamp is all single anded. Does anyone make a decent multi channel preamp with balanced inputs?

The "honeymoon period" with Meridian so far was mostly good. The digital section, upgradability, firmware updates, supports, and the quality of the sound is all first class. I don't know why Meridian gears are not talked about as much in the forums, as I found mine simply superb.