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A. A. Capitole owners - what's the next step??

Hello to anyone who has owned or auditioned the Capitole MK II or III player. I have owned a MKII for a couple of years now, and have always been very impressed with the sound, but now have the upgrade itch.

I want to make sure my next player is AT LEAST as good as my Capitole (obviously, would prefer an improvement in some or all areas!).

What suggestions can you give me? BTW - I prefer to stay with something that has it's own volume control, like the Capitole, and only have standard "redbook" CD's.

Thanks to any & all.
denf
whitewind
23 posts
 
Before selling the Capitole, you may want to replace the coupling caps in it to teflon V-Caps:

http://v-cap.com/tefloncapacitors.html

Those are arguably the best caps money can buy. They are 40$ each (you need two of them).

They should bring your Capitole to another level. I have just ordered set for myself.

gregm
3,409 posts
 
Then (after the caps), you might consider a different shelf (support) for the AA. Say, a Neuance or similar.
After that, you might also play around with diy I/C -- lowly magnet wire, for example (20-22gauge) and dispense with the IC plugs.

In other words, there's quite a lot to keep you happily occupied while you HOLD ON to yr AA.
I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination -- but, quite frankly, it would take an exhorbitant (IMO) investment to readily surpass the performance level of yr player AND you may find that the rest of the system needs "upgrading" too. Can of worms if ever...
warrenh's avatar
warrenh
2,299 posts
 
I agree with all of the above. It is hard for me to believe that this is the weak link in your system. That is one hellava cdp you have there. In fact, (I own the Prima)if I had a different wife I'd go for the Capitole in a flash. I would think about: new ICs, power conditioning for your front end, Sistrum SP 1 to couple your cdp, etc. etc. There are oodles of tweaks that you can do to improve the sound. Why don't you (if you dare, lol) tell us what the rest of your listening rig is about. warren :-)
baddabob
63 posts
 
I don't own one of these babies but if I did, I would be putting my hobby money into music.
artg
362 posts
 
i owned and really enjoyed a AA Capitole, SE. Obviously you COULD upgrade the unit to SE status, which upgrades the caps and puts in a cryo'd tube. I would not be able to speak for what it would add, since I only ever had the SE version. I also know of someone (user FrankPiet) who had the volume attenuator modded to great effect.

I also agree that power cables and isolation are CRITICAL on any digital front end: I used the HRS iso platform and electraglide epiphany to great effect....

Ultimately, I ended up getting the Reimyo CDP and have not looked back. It's silly expensive and does not have a volume control, so would not meet your criteria. There's always the Meitner separates that do have a built in preamp stage....

OTOH, your stock player is mighty fine - so what specifically do you want to improve on?
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