Peter wrote:
I have recently seen the "Professional" Marantz PMD340 CD player advertised,
and I noticed that it incorporates balanced XLR outputs, which not even the
very expensive "high-end" consumer Marantz CD players do.

Right, because the consumer equipment is intended to go into consumer amps
and preamps which have only unbalanced line.

Hence I am wondering how this "Professional" Marantz CD player sounds
compared to the very expensive Marantz "Consumer" models?

Probably not as good, since it has all that additional buffering electronics
in it to make it more rugged and have better noise rejection. But if you
use outboard converters (and you should if you care about sound quality),
it won't make any difference.

I do not have any Marantz professional dealers nearby so I cannot listen to
the player, but I wonder if anyone reading this might have heard, or perhaps
even own, this CD player?

I installed one in a shipboard installation. It was great, but since it
was going through 8" fullrange speakers it's hard to tell how it sounds.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."