Can any player challenge Audio Aero Prestige SE ?

Hi George,

Long time, no talk! I had owned the AA Prestige SE player for about 3 months last year, and it was a great player! If one is looking for a CDP with a built in preamp, this, in my reviews on the internet (with the BS filter set to high ) and talking with others that own this player, is among the best. The only thing that I really did not particularly like was the fact that mine came with the universal touch-based remote. Not, in my opinion, a very good remote.
It is a beautifully built unit that people (including myself) deem a “musical” CDP vs. an “analytical” CDP.
Please also note that there has been an issue with the transport, but I cannot readily remember what. This surfaced after I sold the AA Prestige SE. I had no mechanical problems whatsoever with this CDP.
In case you are wondering why I sold it (I know you are George), I ultimately decided to use an integrated amp with my Merlins and thus did not want to have all that money tied up in a component that was redundant in the preamp section. I have another “musical” CDP – the Marantz SA-15S1.
Oh, one last note. The last time I looked, Audio Aero’s website info on this player was not really informative (i.e. links to reviews, peeks under the hood, etc.) and coupled to the fact that there is not much info out there on this player (except for a neat article written by, I believe, the Audio Federation in a comparison to an older version of an EMM Labs player) that researching it, as you noted, was difficult.

Best of regards,

David

Avguygeorge - remember that the palyer takes A LOT of time to properly braeak in. 200-300 h at least. At first it will sound quite good, then the sound will deteriorate, so don't worry ! After 200-300h mark it should sound wonderful again.

This is 'cos of the V-Cap capacitors used in all the SE/Signature models.

The break in time of standard, non SE/Signature models is much shorter (they use Hovland coupling caps). At least that has been my expirience with my old Capitole mk II SE and non SE models (but they use same caps as SACD Prestige, so shouldn't be any diffferent).

The Audio Aero is a fantastic player, avguygeorge and there are many people using it directly as a full preamp.

You well need some good footers, the black diamond footers are excellent but the Acoustic system topline footers made the player much richer and more relaxed sounding. A a good power cord and place the player on a isolation bass, I use the HRS but here a black dimond base might be just the trick.

I just did a shoot out vs a $30k DCS stack and the AA blew it away! So if you got a Prestige you will be quite happy.
Do not have buyers remorse the player is excellent.

Hey, thanks guys--This is more like it---AND--Hi there David. I'll send you a note. I'm already thinking of some of the advantages like one less platform,one less cord,one less ic/dig.linc. Oh, I guess the word is simplification. My player is used and will be replacing my 14 year old Theta Data 3 and Audiomeca's Enkainthus.-- I guess you can see I haven't been buying every flavor of the month, transport,huh?? That Data 3 and the Gen 5 a cost more,back in that time and day. I bought both at the same time. That was before the 'a' mod came out.I later had the 'a' and still later, the 96/24 thing done. Living practically down the street from Theta didn't hurt; and they do take care of 'original' owners.

Adiooracle: I believe at the level we are talking about (AA Prestige, Esoteric X-01 Ltd., Wadia 581i etc.) it´s much a matter of taste and system synergy.

In my system used during shoot-out the GNSC modded 581 was a CLEAR winner over the competition. The Ayre C-5xe I´m using currently is a very good player for the money but reaches probably just 60% of the Wadias performance. It´s that good and will be replaced with the forthcoming Wadia 781i or the new EMMLabs CDSA. The latter one is a killer as well..