I am using an old Studer A727 CDP (the heavy duty pro version of the Revox B226) as a transport and it sounds great. I believe it dates back to the late 80s, but I think it sounds better than my Pioneer DV-05(DVD) and my old Denon DCD2650. I also preferred it to a Rega Planet as a one box CDP. It must have somewhat low amounts of jitter, or the Millenium takes care of the problem...whichever, I don't notice a problem and I prefer it to the other players I tried. I have tried several digital cables...Better Cables basic model, Apogee Wyde Eye, Cardas Lightning 15, Acoustic Zen MC2, and an Elco Premium Silver. I've settled on the Elco for now, but the Cardas and Acoustic Zen have their strengths and the Apogee is amazing for $35. The EVS is a really great DAC for the price...you won't be disappointed. Every transport and every cable I tried sounded good. Sure...I did comparisons and I preferred certain transports and cables over others, but I could easily live happily ever after with any of the transports and cables. They were all musical through the Millenium 2, but the DAC is good enough to spend some time finding a good cable and transport. You'll notice the difference and you'll be happy that you did. As far as buying a Millenium 2 today?? Yeah...I think I would. They were a great deal when new, but they're an even better deal used. A one-box player *could* be better, but you'd have to spend a lot of money to get the parts and design quality that went into the DAC2. I'd like to upgrade to a one box player with hi-res capability and have Ric Schultz (from EVS) mod it, but I don't see the point in doing that until more companies come out with decent universal players. Why commit to SACD OR DVD-A now? In another year or two more companies will be offering good players that are capable of playing both. Until then, the Millenium DAC2 is an excellent choice for Redbook CD and/or DVD.
