AA Capitole Mk II - what the evaluaions brought?


Do you have any comments on the sound of a new AA Capitole?
I suppose some units are already well broken-in(?).
mrgigi
Mes, have you tried using the volume control of your Tenor 75 WI? How does it compare to the AA's?
Jacpiii- Yes, and in fact I preferred that to any linestage I tried, very nice. However, direct sounds better to me for the aforementioned reasons, and a sense of body without sacrificing detail that I prefer. Probably no rights or wrongs here, merely personal preference. But thus far, direct sounds more like real music, the others more hi-fi, although astounding hi-fi nonetheless.
As a dealer, I would like to sell preamps and separates as there is more profit to be made that way. However, not to take away anything from Artistic Audio's findings, in EVERY case when any of my customers have bypassed their preamps, the Audio Aero Capitole excelled even more on it's own. Preamps that were used are as follows:

Atma-sphere MP1
Aesthetix Callisto Signature
Audio Research Ref 2 MK II
BAT VK-50SE
CJ ART 2
CTC Blowtorch
Joule Electra
Lamm L2 Reference
Levinson 32 Reference
Presence Top of the line
Thor

I would say these represent some of the finest preamps in the world. In all cases, the preamps were sold and replaced with just the Audio Aero Capitole. Some of the digital gear that was replaced are as follows:

Accuphase 75
Accuphase SACD player
Audio Research CD3
Audiomeca Enkianthus
Burmester
dCS Elgar / Purcell
Dodson DAC / CEC combo
Goldmund
Levinson 30.6 / 31.5
Marantz SA-1 SACD Player
Sony SCD-1 SACD Player
Wadia (various top of the line models)

Again, all of the aforementioned components represent some of the worlds best and in each case, the Audio Aero unseated them. My customers care about money, but care more about having the best they can find regardless of cost. In 90% of the cases, each customer ended up with better sound and quite a bit of money in their pocket. The savings on interconnects and power cords alone was substantial.

I can also share with you that there are some out there that after hearing the Capitole, have sold there top notch analog systems.

Hard to believe? Let your ears decide.
I've listened to the Audio Areo now at the Montreal show ,a show in Europe ,and at a customers house locally.It is a fine player but not in the league of the Aloia.Inductive power as many reviewers and listeners are finding is the solution for complete resolution.
Nobody has mentioned the Reflection Audio OM1 w/ battery power supply. I own this pre. and have found it to be above all the before mentioned. The rest of my system consist of Tenor 15 watt,Zanden 5000DAC, Audio Note CDT-2 transport, and Virtual Dynamic Nite cables throughout, allmost forgot the speakers, Von Schweikert DB100's!