As you're interested in Krell, why not go for the KPS20i as it is being offered on audiogon at the moment. They don't come along too often, but I think there are now three different units up for sale within your price range.
Don't get too uptight with all the hoopla about recent developments in digital audio, or whatever else the manufacturers of the so called upsampling devices would have you believe. This mid 90's machine will happily do a 7.056 kHz sampling frequency and 24 bit accuracy (by employing a DSP-based proprietary 16x oversampling digital filter), that will show these pretenders a clean pair of heels in the resolution department. It also has the Philips CDM9 Pro transport mechanism configured for toploading (using a very cool disc clamp, not to mention the fact that the disc is bathed in green light), fully balanced digital circuitry with two Burr Brown PCM63K converter chips per channel and a discrete balanced analogue output stage (not an IC or op-amp in sight). As for construction, there's no plastic within a mile of this machine!
But forget about all that high technology and solidity of construction. The PERFORMANCE of this player will bring you as close to the feeling of "being there" with the musician as you have any right to expect.
I've purchased mine about a month ago and I'm convinced it's the best audio decision I ever made.
cheers,
hans
