A few years after, in 2001, I exchanged the Pioneer for a used Cambridge Audio CD-6 (in the same shop where I bought my first CD from Philips): it featured a very good reading section and a warm sound. I found some irony in the fact it used bitstream converters. Its successors would have adopted Burr-Brown 24 bit converters but I had listened to the CD-6 in comparison to a brand new Marantz and I liked the Cambridge more.

It used three separate power supplies for the digital, analogue and optical sections. It also had balanced XLR outputs (which I’ve never used). I fell in love with Cambridge Audio players during a 1-month trip to Leeds, UK. Once back, I searched for a used one and I found it in the aforementioned shop for €600 (€200 plus my old Pioneer – a good treat for the trick they played on me years before!). The wonderful player was top of the line in Cambridge Audio’s offer of the time. It would cost 1 million Lire when it came out (1996). Finally my system was balanced and I did fulfill many of my goals. Still, it was technology from the 90s and time matters a lot in digital technology.