Bowbow...actually I don't change equipment all that much, but I have been in this hobby for for over 23 years. I've been using Aerial 10t's for a little over 6 years. My Well-Tempered Reference table and arm are a good 10 years old. I used the same Van den Hull Grasshopper cartridge for almost 10 years before changing to a low output Grado Reference, which is a better match with the arm. I use an EAR 834P phono preamp that is about 6 years old. My BEL 1001 MK3A's are also somewhere around 6 years old. The Stan Warren PD-93 I owned for one year, but after hearing how good the CLD-79 was I decided to keep looking. I don't think the fault was with Stan's work by any means. My goal was always to find digital that at least approached the quality of my turntable set up and it is true that the highest turnover in my system has been digital because that has been a difficult goal to achieve. The Audio Logic DAC is the most musical and analog sounding DAC I've heard. I sold my original Audio Logic, Sony ES (used as a transport)and Joule Electra preamp to a close friend during the year that I was building a music room and could not use them. After the room was finished I tried the Accuphase and the Adcom. As good as they were thery were not the Audio Logic so I picked up another Audio Logic and the CEC TL2 on the recommendation of a friend (that turned out to be excellent advice). The Genesis Digital Lens is a recent addition and well worth picking up for what people are giving them away for these days......So, to answer your question, how can I tell if anything is good or bad? My answer would be that I have been using essentially the same reference system for many years and am very familar with its sound. And it is a very good system capable of tremendous detail and musicality. I have also gone to the trouble to build a very good room(this is the second room I've built, both very similar), which is usually the weakest link in an audio system. That said, these are just my opinions and they reflect my particular listening biases. None-the-less, I believe my experience in this hobby is seasoned enough to offer advice to those who ask, and that's what this forum is all about. I hope this helps and that you find my experience to be of some use.
