Trevor Wilson wrote:

"Laurence Payne" NOSPAMlpayne1ATdsl.pipex.com wrote
"Trevor Wilson" wrote:

**Forget second hand, unless you are prepared to throw a new laser in a
decent exotic machine. IMO, the best value around today is the Harman
Kardon HD970. Brilliant machine for not too much cash. It'll even play
MP3s.

Looked it up.

**A waste of time. Go listen to it. It is a very fine sounding machine.

The "...exclusive sound improvement system based on the
Real Time Linear Smoothing III, optimizing the sound level and
quality" worries me a little. Smacks of audiophile snake-oil. Can it
be switched out?

**Nope. IMO, the good sound of the HD970 is likely to be related to the
excellent DAC used and the very impressive, all discrete transistor output
stages. Quality OP amps complement the mix.

I look forward to your detailed analysis of why a DISCRETE output stage
performs any better than an INTEGRATED one.

It's just yet more marketing ******** appealing to pseudo-technical prejudices.

Graham