Summary:
Great product, very likely about to get even better (See SF web site where they announcing the new "3" line.) The SFD 2 II can't do everything right, but to my ears it's going in the right direction while few others are. The mighty Krell KPS20iL, for example, creates a magnficent, grand, objective sound image, which in terms of steer magnitude blows the SFD 2 away. But when the smoke clears, there's something missing. It's as if there is emptiness between the instruments with the Krell. On a great deal of material, you don't hear music, you hear almost disembodied information. It may be an entirely accurate transmisission of what's on the cd, in which case all of the spleen directed at the medium is deserved. But it's not music. That's what the SFD 2 gets! The music. I suspect it's in the tubes, and so the price paid -- less bass, rolled off high end -- must be paid. I hope the new "3" can lower the price. But if you want your music to sound beautiful -- and music does sometimes sound beautfiful! -- listen to Sonic Frontiers first to give the others something to shoot at.

Summary:
Best transport and dac system i have every had a chance to listen to. i have had this in my home for two months now and it truely is a piece of work. i only wish that chris jensen at sonic frontiers would have warned me about the new Line stage 3 that replaces my SFL-2. But back to the CD. it rocks the house with sweet highs and lows that make me wonder why i don't get a real eviction notice. the imaging is only compared to the EAD and Mark LEVINSON. i also listened to the krell 30i along with the 20i. both of which were negleted becasue of their bad interaction with the rest of the system. i have the transport and dac connected with D-60 cox from KK. and it just adds to the openness that the entire system brings to the apartment. not bad for a college boy from WI>