AA Capitole Mk II - what the evaluaions brought?

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!

Passive is better than many preamps on the market if EVERYTHING is optimal for it's use. I would have agreed about no line stage needed until I heard the Audio Note. Transformer coupled (8 transformers) Black Gate, tantulum film resistors etc. NOTHING! even passive comes close. The dynamics, layering etc. are unbelievable. My employee uses the EVS attenuators. And I have used the Placette, old First Sound etc. etc. I offered to do a shootout here against any passive or cd player with volume control on the planet. I only had one taker. One of my customers just bought the Audio Aero II and has offered to bring it over and compare with the Audio Note. I will again post my offer. Anyone who would like to bring over their passive or cd player with volume out and compare to a really good pre-amp is welcome. We have some amplifiers well suited for passive use or bring your own. We have Audio Note amps with 100k input impedance and .5 volt to drive to clipping as well as the Kora with like specs, Air Tight as well as the Gamut amp which has adjustable sensitivity switches to optimize for passive use if needed. The only rules are no one is to be close minded. I am also open to hear something which might possibly change my mind. We will have snacks and fun and have some other audiophiles over to participate. It's easy to have opinions! Lot more fun to test those opinions. If you want to have some fun and join in call me and lets do it. 925-229-2484.

Boy I guess I raised some nose hairs on the topic of active line stages. top notch preamps seem to be a Lost Art, but with companies like Wyetech Labs, Audio Note, Zanden and few others I will still favor them over running my CD player direct.