Wow, I'm always amazed at the speed of replies on this forum!

I had not really considered the 200/600 series of products as sound upgrades--interesting ideas. But I'm curious about the rationale ("store+core in same unit being optimal"), since I've had Meridian reps tell me several times that "optimal" was to separate the electronics of storage and the "computer noise" of the C15 core from the processing, which seems at odds with your statement. Of course, maybe they were just pushing an ID40/41 option as an upgrade path, but their *argument* was best sound quality.

As an aside, I do like having the TwinStores--just belt and suspenders, since I back up separately, and having the convenience of real-time backups is nice--so am not anxious to move towards replacing them.

On the analog pass-through, I'm sure the extra ADC/DAC cycle is handled extremely well by Meridian. And I appreciate the confirmation that the 861 doesn't allow for analog pass-through.

Thanks for the quick response and thoughts!

Sooloos C15, 2x2TB TwinStores, Meridian 808.5, BSG Tech QOL, Allnic L-5000, FirstWatt SIT-1s, Zu Dominance; Modwrighted Oppo BDP95, Classe SSP-800, Sony VPL-VW50 Pearl.