Series 1

Audio Research's new top-of-the-line Reference 3 line-stage preamplifier ($9995) has a distinctive and very easy-to-read display that is much more impressive than this photo captures...

...while inside you'll find tube rectification handled by a 6L6, which is normally an output tube for power amplifiers. Unfortunately owners of the Reference 2 line-stage preamp cannot upgrade their units to the Reference 3 -- the changes are too profound -- but the price of both units is identical. [www.audioresearch.com]

Esoteric's new CD/SACD digital separates go above and beyond the call of audiophile extremism. The P-01 transport ($25,000) features an outboard power supply...

...while the D-01 mono DAC ($12,500) requires a pair for stereo use -- or five for multichannel sound! All were built to Esoteric's well-known jewel-like standards.

VTL's TL-6.5 Reference preamplifier ($8500) is a one-box version of the TL-7.5 Reference, which Marc Mickelson is currently reviewing. Both preamps share the same rich feature set, and if you look closely you can see that some already high-quality caps are bypassed by ones of even higher quality.

Denon, a company that has been pursuing the universal-player market for some time now, is releasing the new top-of-the-line DVD-5910, priced at $3500. Of course, it supports all current music and video software formats, and features the Realta-HQV video chipset from Silicon Optix as well as DVDO-HD+ scaling technology.