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No longer sitting on the fence

I have been uanble to make up my mind about SACD. I have listened to the top Sony models and found them impressive but have decided to stay with Redbook. I have over 5K cds in my collection and I think this is the better choice for me. I currently own a Cary 306/200 player that is excellent but I am willing to pay more for that small improvement. I can't afford the dCS equipment and have been looking at the Audio Aero top model. I've looked at previous posts and for the most part they are positive. My biggest concerns are built quality, dependability and customer support. There seems to be an issue about a number of gray market units out there that the company won't support and I'm not real clear on the Mark 11 version with different chips. Any help would be appreciated.
rec
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Rec I'm behind you in the collection stakes but I made a similar descision regarding my next upgrade.
I'm not familar with your player but have you considered the Ayre CX-7?
It adds a little something extra to CD replay imho.
Will work well with older CD's.
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,366 posts
 
I have owned a Capitole Mk 2 since they were introduced about a year ago. Just because they have the P4 chip doesn't mean all is well. I had a list of about 15 different problems with the Capitole and finally had to send it in and have a complete circuit board replacment. It seems to be working fine other than the fact that the counter still won't acurately read the remain time on a track, it doensn't seem like to much to expect a 9k CD player to perform flawless, which Audio Aero players don't. I also have the Audio Aero Prima CD player in another system and after a month it is now having problems with the display fading in and out. Certainly don't buy Audio Aero gear based on reliablility or build quality, they are very weak there. As far as sound goes they are fantastic, the Prima is a steal, it's close to as good as the Capitole Mk 2. Customer support is good, they are very interested in making sure their players are working as they should. Basically if sound quality is not your number one priority I would look for something besides Audio Aero, cause really thats all they have going for them.
buscis2's avatar
buscis2
468 posts
 
Rec, check this out. Written by another analog snob who now owns Audiomeca and actually prefers it over his analog rig.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/enkianthus_e.html
gaudio_eek
312 posts
 
You may want to also consider going the route of EmmLabs DAC6 with a modifed transport by Ed Meiner. This seems to be the latest rage amongst some "connoisseur" AudiogoN members. One A'goNer sold his Linn CD12 in favor of this set-up. I don't know the price though and how well this would match with your budget. However, with 5,000 redbook CDs, it's worth it to check out every option you can lay your hands on.
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue4/meitnerdac.htm
http://www.highfidelityreview.com/firstlook/meitner.asp
Good luck.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I would not trade my Audio Aero for anything out there. I bought mine used here on Audiogon and I love it. It has several digital inputs so I use it for my main Cd player, I use the coax for my DVD player(two channel) and I use the toslink for my Yamaha CD player for when I want to play multiple CDs without having to get up to change.
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