⭕ This 808.3 is one of the hardest to classify components I have ever seen, and one of the most intriguing. It is. . .

---A very high-end D/A converter that works by upsampling the signal to 24-bit, 176kHz.
---A high-end ANALOG preamp with a fantastic volume control and lot of stereo analog inputs. It has both BALANCED and Unbalanced analog audio outputs to go to your amp and connections for Meridian speakers (digital).
---A CD player of the highest quality. Some say this is one of the two or three best CD players ever made.
---A Learning system remote that is so cool you wont believe it!

This unit contains a disc transport, DAC with volume control AND the input switching into one box. So its a CD player and a preamp in one, as long as you dont need a phono input. If you DO need a phono input, outboard boxes are readily available. If you have a great preamp already, you can set the output of the player to fixed and run it into your other preamp, bypassing the internal volume control. Adding digital and analog INPUTS to a great CD player makes sense. Since the D/A section is usually most of the cost, why not let your other digital sources take advantage of the superior digital-to-analog conversion built into the player. The transport section is of the highest grade. Its a CD-ROM drive. It can play CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs. It can also play the CD layer of SACDs. It cannot play SACD tracks. I doubt that most SACDs would sound as good as the CD layer played with this players upsampling, anyway. Shipping or collection and it comes with a 30 day right of return should it not perform to your expectations.