BEWARE OF THIS PRODUCT!!!!!! A friend and I went to a classe dealer to "play" for the afternoon. At the end of the day we spied a nice looking preamp in the corner. It was the new digitally controlled CP-45 preamp from Classe'. Having owned an older Cp-30 and absolutely hateing it, I wanted to hear what it sounded like. We hooked it up, and listened. A little better than my old CP-30, but not that great IMHO. Sorry to say that the sound isn't the worst atribute of this preamp.There is a SERIOUS design flaw with this unit!!!!!! IT WILL DAMAGE SPEAKERS!!!!!! How? Let me tell you what happened! It was a carpeted room, when everytime you touched a piece of gear you got a shock. A fairly normal condition in the winter in the northeast. All other gear that day was not affected by the static shock, except the Classe'. The Classe', when static shocked "freaked out",the CPU went nuts, and opened the volume of the preamp up full blast and blew the tweeter in the speakers we were auditioning!!!!!! Not a desierable feature of a preamp, regardless of sound IMHO!!!! If you value your speakers, stay away!!!! 0 stars if it were a choice.
P.S. this was not a new, defective unit. The dealer said it had never happened before, and that that unit had been out on the floor for some time.