I wisper, but don't tell anyone...
I listened in direct comparison Cambridge D500SE($449 list $300 for demo) and CapitoleII players and they sounded very identical with exception that Cambridge was sounding a-little thinner than CapitoleII so for now just assume that it will be almost the same as Prima but for alot cheaper. I made the listening test through the active Avantgarde Solo speakers and Placette passive preamp. This system reveals any tiniest sound effects very close to headphones realy and there the difference was between directly two made on one of the excellent recordings of NYJG(New York Jazz Guerilla www.nyjg.de). I simply accidentally asked dealer to demo me Avantgarde with "cheaper" source and than to swap back to expencive and three of us(including my friend) heard either none or very tiny-little differences.
You can invest the rest of your budget for good used Pass Ono outboard phonostage to get much more buck-return.
I listened in direct comparison Cambridge D500SE($449 list $300 for demo) and CapitoleII players and they sounded very identical with exception that Cambridge was sounding a-little thinner than CapitoleII so for now just assume that it will be almost the same as Prima but for alot cheaper. I made the listening test through the active Avantgarde Solo speakers and Placette passive preamp. This system reveals any tiniest sound effects very close to headphones realy and there the difference was between directly two made on one of the excellent recordings of NYJG(New York Jazz Guerilla www.nyjg.de). I simply accidentally asked dealer to demo me Avantgarde with "cheaper" source and than to swap back to expencive and three of us(including my friend) heard either none or very tiny-little differences.
You can invest the rest of your budget for good used Pass Ono outboard phonostage to get much more buck-return.