Hi Duntec

Given that the price you are being offered is higher than you paid, I'd say sell now, and not only do you have a clean slate, but you are up on the deal. The field is then wide open for your next choices, although if your finances and/or access to 800 series are limited, and will be for the forseeable future, I think it may be best to forgo the idea of upgradability. Personally, I feel I'd need to be permanently rolling in cash to justify the 800 series, as the price of upgrades recently has matched the price of many other companies' premium models when bought outright (I think this is a point which UA has also made previously).

For possible replacements, if you are downsizing until HDMI or another standardised digital interface is sorted for DVD-A and SACD, you could do a lot worse than the 561 as mentioned above...it's a great machine, and will be fairly inexpensive now. I can't remember if you mentioned how much of a priority multichannel music is to you, but if it's not, then even a used 602 or 500 transport will sound excellent at the front end. You will have a lot of cash in hand saved to put down against the next major purchase in a year's time, when I reckon that a lot of dust will have settled re new formats and interfaces, or at the least, used G series will be available.

Cheers

George

PS Forgot your priority for movies...surely many of the newer mainstream models (eg Arcam, Pioneer etc) give the 596 and 598 a run for their money in straight video performance? As to your list of possibles above, Rotel is nowhere near M in performance terms...good competent stuff, but I suspect that would be a downgrade too far!

[This message has been edited by Mr Meridian (edited 12-23-2003).]