I ended up buying the RS, in part due to the high recommendation of my trusted and reputable dealer. Others considered were used products at quite higher price ranges (used Pass Xono and used Parasound Halo JC3) but in the end I decided to just save some dough and give it a try. No complaints here! In fairness I don't have much to compare it to because it replaced an el cheapo Parasound phono stage and I've never had the opportunity to do any comparisons with other models.
