moseslawn: You mentioned the Bass, Treble, and Balance lamps should be on when not in "standby". Neither of the three are lit up, when the radio is playing, so I'm assuming i'm not in "standby". Is the standby control the touch control to the right of the FM 5 control?
that is correct.
with the unit powered, and the on/off switch to on, you should be in "standby" mode. a small red light will be on, above the red "O" standby button. you would normally leave the BM in this low power state. you simply press the source desired, and viola, on it comes w/ the red light going out! simply tapping the red "O" again will put it back into standby.
moseslawn: One last question....... Can I hook up a CD player through the tape input providing I can find the correct cable?
absolutely. you will not have any control of it via the remote, but it will work fine. if your cd player has rca outs, then you will need a "rca->din adapter" as this BM does not have rca inputs. i have also used a "minijack->din adapter" (for ipod). with that, i was able to plug up not only an ipod, but itunes via airport express, as well as sound out from my mac. member: "steve at sounds heavenly" (link at bottom of this page on right) can likely help with adapters.
if you decide you want to expand, the BG4004 turntable will work with your remote. on the tape side, though there were BC1900/2400's that were paired w/ the bm2400, i prefer the cosmetic near match of the BC2000.