dcs puccini, chord red ref, meitner cdsa or nagra

Hi Dave,
Maybe the pictures i have seen of the Playback design have been unfortunate.
The display looks cheap which is a bad start.

The Chord equipment sure has a look and probably the cd player suffers the worst with the cd lid placed like that. Their amps i have heard sounded very good. I can see why some wouldnt like the fussy design though. Nicely finished when you seem them up close.

The Playback Designs display is bright. Since it's not blue or green it photographs harshly, but in person it's VERY easy to read and understand.

Dave

most important is the sonics and then the looks and of course a reliable and well-known manufacturer especially in digital gear.

That's very Meitner of you ;) My philosophy has always been reliability first because no matter how good a unit sounds, if it's not working you're getting zero performance (i.e., less performance than any working CDP). Of course, if the sonics aren't there, then all the reliability in the world isn't going to help you :)

i do not disagree Bar81 that's what I said first about well known manufacturer with reliability for example Accuphase, dCS, Esoteric......but sonics as well!