Hi George,
I can honestly say that I have never bought a new piece of gear because it's the latest and greatest. I'm always curious about new stuff, but take all the hype with a grain of salt. I have had now for close to four years my AA Tube Hybrid Reference DAC and have found none of the new DACS to sound better, maybe different, to purchase a different DAC. Also I had the great fortune to score the reference MBL transport, to replace its smaller brother, which sonicly lead to an improvement that was quite noticable.
I think the ML pieces are "classics" and at the time were built to beautiful standards, however, they sonicly are not on the same level in their performance compared with the top reference level digital gear now.
I don't change gear very often but when I do it's only because I believe I'm getting more of the illusion of real music in my system, not because I need a new toy to play with.
I can honestly say that I have never bought a new piece of gear because it's the latest and greatest. I'm always curious about new stuff, but take all the hype with a grain of salt. I have had now for close to four years my AA Tube Hybrid Reference DAC and have found none of the new DACS to sound better, maybe different, to purchase a different DAC. Also I had the great fortune to score the reference MBL transport, to replace its smaller brother, which sonicly lead to an improvement that was quite noticable.
I think the ML pieces are "classics" and at the time were built to beautiful standards, however, they sonicly are not on the same level in their performance compared with the top reference level digital gear now.
I don't change gear very often but when I do it's only because I believe I'm getting more of the illusion of real music in my system, not because I need a new toy to play with.