Thank you very much everybody who responded to my questions. You've got me thinking, now I have to go research these options. I'd also like to hear the answer to Greg Gorrie's question of what is a great audiophile needle for doing this sort of thing. A particular model by Grado? A different model of Ortofon? A moving coil model as opposed to a magnetic one? For my purposes I need something with umph and kick to it in its frequency response (as opposed to a needle made especially for Classical or Jazz music). Someone else was wondering why I didn't just go through my receiver. It's a Kenwood AV surround receiver with Dolby ProLogic (model KR-V5580) from a few years ago, so I don't really think it's that professional nor is it a McIntosh. thanks again everyone! _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail