Mike60, I respect your expertise and opinion, but to my original point, some esoteric players exhibit mechanical noise during playback and it is a fact( I had it on two brand new players x-03se and k-03). One can leave with that or fix it paying some substantial chunk of money for shipping and only having back player praying it will not be damaged during shipping with conclusion that nothing wrong functions according to the specs. But for $13000 player and famous reliability reputation, it should have NONE to sell to customers. Like badwisdom, the noise from k-03 drove me crazy (otherwise a very good player) and it was until my friend who plays violin in Philadelphia orchestra came to listen to the new CD, all of a sudden noticed - were is this annoying noise coming from? I regretfully sold it, bought another brand, and never looked back