Have been using a Mephisto II for about a year now. It beat out a CEC TL-2X in A/B comparisons, because of naturality of ambience, space, and (slightly) better low-level information retrieval. I went through a love phase with this devilish seducer the first few months, but then I noticed very small things that bugged me and I realized that it is not the transport of my dreams. The wide-diameter 45mm (rather than 30mm) clamp of the High Precision Read Out Mechanism is superb, the magnetic puck is nicely machined, and the weighted Sanyo laser pickup is probaby better focused than any of the Sonys and Phillips used on much more expensive CD transports, but why--in a design which tries to minimize internal and external vibrational resonance as much as this one does--install a rather ordinary two gear motor directly next to the pickup and under the platter? In other words, why not a BELT DRIVE motor (for the elimination of motor resonances)? Furthermore, the TRACKING control does not control error-correction at all, but only solves a problem that Audiomenca created in the first place: namely, it allows one to combat at home (rather than have to ship the transport back to France) the drift of the EF balance between the two photo diodes. It can happen (although, only twice with me) that the EF balance is no longer maintained and the laser can no longer follow the tracks on the CD, and you have to find a new balance with the tracking regulator. There are other more petty complaints like: why the plastic casing for the puny external power supply? Why the cheap Japanese remote with the "Audiomeca" sticker stuck on it? Why the slightly modified CEC electronics inside and not a completely new design? Why the poorly translated owners manual? Why does the puck have to lose its magnetic force after about a year (and do we really want a magentic field here in the middle of a CD turning this fast?) And mystery of mysteries: Why doesn't the Mephisto II react more dramaticallly to expensive upgrades (I am talking NBS Statement here) in power cables (shouldn't the transport be the most sensitive to a power cable upgrade, following the Shunyata view of things)? To conclude this long lover's complaint: You can get better transparency and imaging precision from more expensive transports (the Burmester 969, the top of the line CEC), but--and for the money--the Mephisto II is probably more fun (yes, fun, enjoyable) to listen to than those other two. Call it "a poor Man's Jadis JD1" (this is overly cruel), or an overdesigned (but thoroughly lovely) Black metacrylic and chromium CEC TL-51--it still sounds better than Mark Levinson No. 37 (but not better than the No. 31.5).
