Mike is absolutely right about the CBII. I don't have a CBIII yet so I cannot say, but I strongly suspect he is right about that too :). As far as the line stage goes, I have heard the Saturn line of the Aesthetix and it is not the absolute best line stage I ever heard but it is close and much cheaper than something like the VTL 7.5 (which is the best I heard) and the Jupiter line of Aesthetix (which is much more expensive and I never heard it before). If you want to go SS on your preamp, try the Ayre K-5 or if you have bucks, the K-1.
