well its gonna get moved, but what the hell. ill take a shot.
1. Power is more than just wpc. Power is clenliness, warmth, coloration, tone, etc. Better components =more expensive. I generally dont like integrated pres, see below for my reasoning.
2. I like the b&w nautilus series, the magnepan, wilson audio stuff.
3. Yes there is a difference. The difference comes in jitter, speed of transfer, laser alignment, etc. BTW, the high end cd players arent 600 bucks, they are more like 2k. I know, I was looking at the new Arcam that came out about 6 mo ago. I'm not a fan of multidisc changers and here is why- I am under the impression that it is better to have something that does one thing really well than a lot of things poorly. That being said, there are many affordable options out there for CD transports.