I love this Marantz!

[frenchmon]

I think I'm there already. I would love to trade up my preamp to a Marantz Reference to match my digital player, but I run my system all balanced and there is a connection compatibility issue with Marantz that I don't care to deal with.

Marantz Reference components all use XLR pin 3 hot/pin 2 cold, whereas most North American higth end components use pin 2 hot/pin 3 cold. To use a Marantz preamp in my system, I would need to reterminate one end of my interconnecting cables to match my amp (not going to happen).

This is thankfully not a problem with the SACD player because it features XLR output polarity reversal from the remote. The preamps do not have this feature (I don't know why). If the preamps did offer this feature, I would give one serious consideration.

Awhhh Glen B...that system is a thing of beauty! I wonder why Marantz does that with the connections? But at the same time, if you know how to do it...what is so bad about exterminating one end of your interconnecting cable?