Thank you hirc49 and WNBC for the well wishes, very kind of both of you indeed! WNBC, I would be happy to give you input on preamp amp combos and or speakers. Let me know what your budget and room is like and we can go from there. If you are on a budget there are a lot of choices these days...

Hello WNBC, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Unfortunately I will be having major back surgery on May 5th so will be out for awhile. Regarding your question about places to hear headphone gear I'm afraid I don't know. At the risk of being cast out I have to say I'm not really a...

Mr, Pluto,   I am a new member but have been reading here for years now. Your assessment of the Ares has finally put me over the edge and I will be ordering one. I currently run one of the first introduced budget R2R dacs, the Metrum Octave which I believe I paid about $1000.00 U.S. dollars...