Headphone amp onboard! True High Fidelity player. Digital out and analog out. Many Marantz models shun integrated circuits and instead use the company's own Hyper Dynamic Amplifier Modules Marantz appears to approach its work of building audio equipment with the healthy enthusiasm of the amateur rather than the 'safe' predictability of the corporation. Its fondness for the "special edition" and the designer tweak is evident from its catalogue; no matter how well received a particular piece of equipment may be, Marantz never seems satisfied — the mark, some might say, of the artist. There is always something that can be modified and improved, giving the buyer the choice between the version built to a market slot and the one which is free of such restrictions. So it is with the latest Special Edition model, the $500 CD-67SE. An already successful and highly regarded CD player has gone back to the designer's bench and had changes made to the detail of its circuitry and construction, bringing to a relatively inexpensive machine some of the benefits of the Marantz expertise that has created the flagship Reference Series. New servo and drive ICs are used in the digital section in the interests of improved tracking and better retrieval of data, with the presumed intention of making fewer demands on the errorcorrection system and dealing with less-than-perfect CDs. The CD6 decoder has been replaced with the CD7 for improved performance. Marantz appears once again to have achieved a difficult feat: the CD-67SE is at once revealing and musical, characteristics some seem to find mutually exclusive. Its price places it above the budget league but nearer to it than to the audiophile bracket, while its performance would suggest the reverse. Its ability to deliver this kind of quality alongside a plethora of features will appeal to those who fear that sonic integrity only comes shorn of extras, and should comfortably exceed anyone's expectations at the price This unit...