I'm glad things are working out to your liking. Similarly, I am pleasantly surprised with how my 970 in bypass mode is not hamstringing either my digital or analog front ends as I initially feared.

I am envious of your analog set up! And it sounds like, overall, you have a very, very nice system.

I did not intend to bad mouth the 2150, it's just that the combination of equipment and disparity of price points is so unusual. Bottom line is however, that unless you need to liquidate the old system for some spare cash, if it's lying around, you may as well enjoy it! That said, do you think longer term you'll migrate everything from the old, dedicated room into the living room and vice versa?

One more personal anecdote that touches upon your situation, if you'll bear with me...

In my retail days 20 years ago, I had the good fortune of being able to borrow a Koetsu Onyx cartridge from the store that had been lying around gathering dust. I think the cantilever was showing some mileage, but it was otherwise in working order. At the time, I think I had one of the early Adcom preamps and a Dual direct drive turntable. They were about $300 - $500 components then, and here I was sporting a $2,000 cartridge. I remember the Koetsu had such woefully low output for the Adcom's phono section, I had to crank the volume darn near to the max to get any decent output. In addition, the cartridge body was so heavy, I had the counterweight nearly dangling off the back of the tonearm just to balance the cartridge.

So how did it all sound? Pretty lush. But you could tell the cartridge had been really shackled by the limitations of the other equipment. It was sort of like tying one of Evander Hollyfield's arms behind his back -- sure he could put up a good fight -- but it didn't show you what a great boxer he was.

I digress a bit, but I had a somewhat similar vision with your Helikon through the 2150. Glad to hear the mismatch wasn't as bad as mine.

Best,