Hi Yiangos, (do you have a first name btw?)

Your post has made me look back on this thread started a year ago and I've realised just how much my own system has changed over that time. I've changed every component in it and gone all-valves on my amplification. What I've got now is a system that seems to deliver on all four fronts at the same time as not being so brutally revealing as to trash less-than-perfect recordings.

It's amazing what a good linear power supply can do for a CD player too. Thse kind of upgrades give you more detail and better dynamics at the same time as making poorer recordings more listenable not less. How can this be so?

I've come to realise that a good musical system simply does not trash bad recordings for it doesn't exaggerate sibilance or top-end harshness. One combination of kit I tried at home just over a year ago included two big-hitting (expensive) transistor pre/power amps from two different manufacturers. A decent recording was breathtaking but poorer recordings were unlistenable. The reason for this is the fact that this was one grainy mutha of a combination. I guess at this point the valve seed began to germinate in my head. Why go for "valve-like" solid state when reallly, only valves will do?