@ mickm:
I own a 88e player and I must say it creates an astonishingly good sound. Besides that it really looks great too. There are also plenty of mods possible to get an even better sound out of the player. (removing the op-amp or replacing some caps)
Lately people seem upset about the company though. Mainly because of a claim made by an ebay-seller (not the manufacturer) about having a great DAC that's better than BB. Turns out to be a BB DAC that they use. However this is the babel-fish translation of their own company website:
"Use after special handling 24bit.192kHZ D/A switch
Uses BB Chip OPA2604 to make the high quality filter circuit, filters the digital signal thoroughly, returns to original state the fine music number."
I think this is were that rumour came from, bad translations. But what's the problem anyway about using the BB Chip? They buy them from BB, they don't copy the chip..... And all they say is that they use a special D/A switch. And about a "non-existing" SONY part-number (allegedly an illigally copied drive system), it turns out that that is the official part number of SONY's China department.
Main thing for me is that the player sound great, looks great and is build very well.