Sim Eclipse cd or Emc1.cd player which one

Hi Grange,
I own a Sim Audio CD player... Before I say anything, just remember that CD players (like any other components) are system sensitive and the rest of the system will make a difference... I was looking into buying one of those CD players:
-Oracle Delphi (around $7,000US)
-Sim Audio Eclipse CD player ($4,600US)
-Wadia 861 ($7,350)

A few specifics: The Sim Audio uses the same transports as the Oracle (CD-pro 12) and it has the has an huge external yet extremely silent power supply (Oracle uses the same kind of power supply).

Frankly, the Wadia KICKS ASS... but the price is a bit steep... I ended up buying the Sim Audio. Altough the Wadia sounds a bit better than the Sim Audio, the price difference versus the sound difference was too big to consider the Wadia.

The Sim audio has amazing resolution and the image is pretty wide (not as quite as the Wadia but close)... Also, the Bass is pretty deep with this unit. I remember an A-gon user was saying the opposite about the base. Out of the 3 CDPs I auditionned, the Sim seemed to have the most dynamic bass (in this comparison, the rest of the system remained the same).

One more thing, the Sim Audio was at least sonically on par with the Oracle CDP. On the other hand, the Sim Audio looks like a piece of Sh!t compared to the Oracle (anyway, I can't think of any CDP that looks as good as the Oracle).

I did not auditionned the Aero Capitole but I'm sure it's really amazing (based on reviews). I guess budget comes into play at one point (even more important when new source formats are coming out)...

One more thing, since canadian dollar is DARN cheap, you can probably grab a used Sim CD from your northern neighbors for peanuts.

By the way, here's the system I auditionned the CD players.

YBA Passion Integre amplification
Verity Audio Fidelio (I also auditionned the Parsifal)
Siltech Sq-88 ICs
Siltech LS-120 speaker cables...
Siltech SPO-18 power cables...

Happy shopping.

Grange- e-mail me @ john.sutton@cmdg.com if you want to discuss- I used to own the Eclipse, and now have the Capitole. I can explain the Eclipse's benefits in detail (used DCSD Purcell upsampler with it, etc.).

Sutts,
it would be interesting to see your opinion between the Eclipse and the CApitole... There are not too many people that have experience with both units...

Lgregoir- I would LOVE to still have my Eclipse on hand to do a test of it as a transport only, using the digital 'in' on the Capitole. Why? Because as a TRANSPORT, the Eclipse is KILLER, extremely well built with a huge outboard power supply.

Just for fun, I tried using my Pioneer Elite DV-09 DVD player as a tranport with the Cap's dig in (using Illuminations DV-60 dig IC). Not bad, but Cap's own tranport was much better...

Sutts, which province do you live in? We can probably arrange something... ;-)

By the way, did you have the Eclipse CD player with the HDCD decoder? The Eclipse I have does not have the decoder built in (the HDCD decoder was taken out of the line in august last year). Kosta from Sim Audio told me that the new version (which I bought) is better sonically than the old one (even by bypassing the HDCD decoder on the previous model, the new model still comes winner). He also told me that the upgrade from the older version to the new is costs $1,800USD... I guess they must have made some significant changes...