Mark,
No reason to get so defensive, simply trying to point out a cheaper (and better, IMHO) alternative. This is only my opinion, sorry if I offended, certainly not my intention.
The Shanling is a great player and I am sure you will be pleased with it's performance. One bit of advice: Try and audition the Shanling with and without a preamp. If you plan on running the Shanling direct into your amp, unless you have an amp with VERY high gain, you will lose a substantial amount of transient speed and dynamics.
FYI...Shanling really never intended for the preamp section to be used without a preamp (feel free to check this out with Roy Hall, the US Shanling distributor), even though many in the US seem to be using it this way. The Shanling sounded the best to my dad and I when we set the volume of the Shanling to max, and then ran the variable outputs to a preamp. Hope this helps.
Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio