It's out. $136 + shipping. If anyone buys it, I'd greatly appreciate a sound quality review.

Someone's already got 1 up on ebay "Like new" condition. Starting bid $123 (ouch).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0850219786

Long story short (I'm also feeling the need to be careful with what I share): Mosaic's CS manager either subscribes to the Ellington list & read what I wrote there or someone forwarded the email to him. After a bit of a discussion where he quite honestly shared with me why the DE box isn't up to my standards he offered to send me a Hawkins box which I can either keep & pay for after 30 days if I like it or return if I don't. Though I can't afford it, under the circumstances I accepted & will report back. Wish I felt comfortable saying more as this has been a bit of a learning experience, but one thing I will never criticize Mosaic for is their excellent CS!

It's hard to overvalue that kind of customer service... nice job, Mosaic!

In case anyone cares.........

I got the Hawkins yesterday. Played 3 discs (1, 2 & 7) on my main system
so far, & 2 on my computer (1 & 3). Short version: the sound is much
better than the Ellington, but still not one of Mosaic's best. I've been
told by Mosaic that the current mastering & transfer engineer is not to
blame for the changing sound choice I'm hearing; I have been told the
opposite by a highly respected jazz producer who I don't feel at liberty
to name.

What I like about the sound:
Really Excellent Definition

What I don't like about the sound:
Subjectively loud throughout the entire spectrum, especially the upper
midrange & lower treble. Though it doesn't appear to be brickwalled, I am
playing this at about 2 volume control notches below most brickwalled rock
cd's! Trumpets also tend to be a bit on the bright side, though worse on
my more accurate Tascam/PS Audio than on my Oppo 95.

There's also A LOT of hiss. I don't like overuse of Noise reduction either
(180 degrees from dysfunctional is still dysfunctional!), but this sort of
material requires a little bit of well placed noise reduction; see
previous Mosaic & ASV releases for examples.

Music's great, but we already knew that!

I'm probably going to keep it, partially out of a self imposed sense of obligation, but my feelings are definitely mixed.