Since my sabbatical

"Q#1: Do I refurbish an old California Audio Labs Icon MK II CD player or simply buy a new unit? If restore the Cal Audio - by whom? If the new route, which one and why?" 

I agree with twoleftears in not putting money into the CAL. If it were me, I would pick up a NEW (or at least one not more than a couple years old) DAC & use the CAL as a transport for however long it lasts.   

The most amazing thing to experience is a streamer plus a Tidal Hi Fi subscription.  Having an almost unlimited music library is mind boggling.  Imagine being able to listen to virtually any artist or piece of music that you want to.  Then decide if you want to change other parts of your system.

Hi rhljazz,

What does something like a streamer and Tidal Subscription cost?  Is that anything like a Squeeze Box?  I'm very old school myself with a vinyl, CD, and Cassette collection - no 8 tracks though - Ha!  

I've noticed that since I got rid of all the cd jewel cases and have put them into case logic notebooks to take up less room, that I don't listen to cds as much.  I also have Spotify Premium on an old Iphone that I use.  How much better is Tidal then Spotify?

I'm using a very inexpensive Oppo DV970 dvd/cd player that sounds really great.  For $99, you can't go wrong and I've heard that the Oppos are indestructible.  

Bluesound Node 2i new is 499.00.  You can likely find the previous model for 300.00 or so.  You need a tablet or phone to run the BluOS app for control.
Tidal Hi Fi is 19.99 per month.  Less than the price of just one new cd.

Okay ... so its agreed. I should look at the new  Marantz SA-10 to replace the Cal ICON.

Now can you help me understand about the resurgence I found when returning to VINYL !?

I have an old TD126 MkII w/ a Stax Unipivot but that is only for TRYING tom transcribe the old records into digital.

Vinyl? Why? What happened?

Could it be the non-existent volume wars on the vinyl era?