I have a 508.20 with the factory upgrade to 24-bit. I rarely used it for the past few years as I have been streaming and using a Meridian Director DAC (which sounds nearly identical to the 508, perhaps a tad better). This past Christmas, my wife was using it to play holiday CDs and I noticed it skipping a few times. I decided it was time to finally replace it, so I bought a Musical Fidelity M2SCD for $1,000. I didn’t want to spend a lot on a CDP because of how little I would use it, but I was pleasantly surprised at its sound. I plan to eventually buy a new DAC and will likely just use the new CDP as a transport.
I tried contacting The Repair Shop by email and via their repair form, but never received a reply. In the meantime, I put the 508 in my second system to see if I can replicate the skipping, and I cannot. It now seems to be playing okay. Go figure. Maybe it just needed to wake up after sitting idle for so long.
I need to decide whether to keep it or sell it.