have u heard Conrad Johnson's tube CD player?

For what it's worth, My experience with CJ cd playback was less satisfactory than Hermans. I was shopping for a new player and phoned a well regarded CJ dealer and discusssed their product line. The store's owner suggested I try their non-tubed unit priced a bit less than the tubed model, stating that it offered 90% of the tubed unit's performance. I was willing to buy the tubed unit, but started with the less expensive model at the shop's suggestion. He said the sonic signature was very similar. My initial impression was lukewarm. VERY easy to listen to, but also lacking in detail, "air" and bass response/tautness. I found it in fact to not be as satisfactory as the much less expensive Cambridge cd4se player I was using. Build quality was very nice though. After discussing it with the shop, we determined that CJ wasn't my brand. Eventually, I ended up using a Sonic Frontiers Assemblage Platinum 2.7 dac with the Cambridge as a transport. This combination was light years better than the CJ in my system and to my ears. Obviously, my experience was quite different than Herman's, so these things are system dependent. I know this isn't exactly relevant to your question, but I couldn't find much about CJ players when I was looking, so I thought I'd share what I could. Good luck, Will.