I have coveted the DGT Revelation II Anniversary Edition myself ever since it was released. I’ve even seen it be played with the BCE Eastern Stage 1 chess set with the DGT piece recognition upgrade. That would have been $3450 +tax for the Revelation II PLUS an estimated $1700-$1900 +vat+ship for a custom order from NOJ. Since NOJ has been on backorder, the alternative could be the new hotness - the HOS Cairnes or Sinquefield official tournament pieces with DGT recognition for $1650 +tax.
Like you, I enjoy window shopping as well.
chessroboto: couldn't you do better than the Revelation with the new Mephisto T and any chess pieces you want (incl NOJ) with Millennium's recognition chips? Seems like you'd end up with an equivalent eBoard, much better computer, and equal chess pieces for 1/2 the price? The Revelation may once have been the top-of-the-line but it looks like the Mephisto T is much better for much less today.
I just ordered a Millennium Chess Genius Exclusive w/ ChessLink that Niggemann was selling for only 20 Euros more with the ChessLink. I didn't really want the computer but for $21 it was practically free. Thanks to the strength of the $, I paid $600 for what is $1000 on amazon today. The coolest thing about it is that I can buy the Phoenix in the future without having to replace my board or pieces -- most of the current Millennium eBoards are compatible the Phoenix.
[EDIT] For a sparring partner, you should set the ELO level to “adaptive”. It should be an opponent that is as strong as your current strength, and it should not steamroll you with precise computer calculations. Hopefully it proves to scale better than the DGT Centaur’s adaptive feature.
With the risk of going off-topic: What's the issue with DGT Centaur's adaptive feature?
Some owners have reported that the adaptive wasn’t consistent. You can search for Centaur reviews in this forum subsection to learn more about it.
We shall see if the adaptive playing strength on UCI engines would prove to be more consistent with the adaptability as the owner got better over time.