California Audio Labs – Icon Mk II CD Player - HDCD

Mine came direct from Cal Audio but it says HDCD on it and does not say "PowerBoss"

The Stereophile article says "The Power Boss upgrade for the California Audio Labs Icon Mk.II ... adds HDCD "  but it does not say that an HDCD player has PowerBoss.

I am curious because this elderly player seems to be as good as the OPPO one (the $500 Oppo, not the expensive one).

I have lots of experience with the CAL product line, but beyond conversational deduction, you may want to reach out to these guys with your specific serial number, etc. Maybe they can get you closer to your definite identification:

http://www.approvedaudioservice.com/cal.html

But yes, the ICON is impressive, enough to make us wonder about these refinements!

1- an HDCD unit will have an HDCD indicator lamp on the front panel

2- to see if it's a power boss unit, pop open to he lid and see if there's a small piggy back PC board stuffed with capacitors above the main PC board. If there's a piggy back board, it's a power boss unit 

With the company no longer in business and the age of these players, do they have a good reliability history to be a viable purchase option? Would you buy one for $500 or its better to look for something new for that price? If so, what? I'm particularly concerned about the transport mechanism on these older CD players.