Hello OGS20
I got my Ah! from Kevin at Upscale, a very classy bunch of folks. It is based on the Marantz chassis. Originally, I got it with the Big Foot option, Direkt Power Kord, Ediswan (1964 vintage) tube upgrade, and the Burr Brown OPA 627s. Loved it!
Never had a chance to compare it to the Heart 6000 though I've heard good things about that unit. I did compare it to a Cambridge D500SE but there was no comparison. The Ah! is just in a different league as to audio reproduction.
I listened to an Adcom CDP which was very good, but don't recall the model number - it may have been a bit over the $1000 level. Didn't have a chance to do enough listening to say whether I preferred one over the other.
I compared it to the Toshiba SD9200 and Philips SACD 1000, and prefer the Ah!, although I did buy one of each of these HiRez units for my solid state HT systems and for their SACD/DVD-A capabilities.
I ended up getting the upsampler and a pair of Siemens ECC288 tubes for the Ah! These take quite a while to break-in.
Interesting you should ask about the transport. The transport failed in my Toshiba, taken care of under warranty. I'm holding my breath as to the Philips because many other folks who grabbed one of these units have suffered transport failures. So far the Ah! is holding up just fine.
If you find yourself in Southern California you're more than welcome to come by for a listen.
