Thsalmon, as a Linn CD-12 owner i would recommend that you consider what your current priorites and future directions are. will you be upgrading you whole system over time? how confident of your present amps and speakers are you that you see that direction for a long time?
when i bought my CD-12 almost 3 years ago i wanted to buy my last cd player. i was convinced that the best one-box player would outperform any separate transport/dac and that multiple-format units would be compromises. so far, i have not heard better than the CD-12 from anything. (i have the latest 24 bit CD-12 which is a little better than the original 20 bit CD-12) i love the way the CD-12 works and expect it to hold it's own for years to come.
so i was comfortable that the CD-12 would justify it's cost in the long run, which has turned out to be the case. at the time i bought the CD-12 i was not considering other amp/speaker directions but was wanting to get off the digital upgrade merry-go-round....which i did.
if you have a large collection of cds then it will make each one better. i would also add that the CD-12 is still one of the coolest pieces of audio jewelry to ever come along.....which doesn't hurt.
there is no one way to go.....but having an anchor component that you can build around would be a very good way to go.
when i bought my CD-12 almost 3 years ago i wanted to buy my last cd player. i was convinced that the best one-box player would outperform any separate transport/dac and that multiple-format units would be compromises. so far, i have not heard better than the CD-12 from anything. (i have the latest 24 bit CD-12 which is a little better than the original 20 bit CD-12) i love the way the CD-12 works and expect it to hold it's own for years to come.
so i was comfortable that the CD-12 would justify it's cost in the long run, which has turned out to be the case. at the time i bought the CD-12 i was not considering other amp/speaker directions but was wanting to get off the digital upgrade merry-go-round....which i did.
if you have a large collection of cds then it will make each one better. i would also add that the CD-12 is still one of the coolest pieces of audio jewelry to ever come along.....which doesn't hurt.
there is no one way to go.....but having an anchor component that you can build around would be a very good way to go.