Thank you everyone - ordered the Aero Capitole 24/192. This was a tough one. A couple of factors went into my decision. First, while I like as much detail as possible, musicality is most important. Lakefrontroad's comments therefore struck a cord. Have heard the dcs Purcell/Delius combo which, at first sounded fantastic, but after awhile didn't seem to have enough "life" for me.
A second factor is that I have a large, very bright room and many of the solid-state DACs I've tried have sizzle or glare at the top end in my setup. Switched from a solid-state pre to a Joule LA-100 mk III (currently being upgraded to 150 status by Jud) as part of attempts to tame the room.
My decision came down between the Capitole and Mephisto II. Since I recently picked up a used Audio Aero Prima player to use in my study and like it, I thought it might be worth the chance to move up to its big brother. I'll let you know how things turn out.
Next step is amplifier(s) for my Von Schweikert VR-5HSEs! Bel Canto 2.002 was good but mid-range seemed a little strange, not quite real - tough to describe. Spectron Muscian II, on short listen sounded great but will probably continue looking - can't solve everything too quickly or I'll have no excuse to spend a couple of hours a day on Audiogon!!
Thanks again one and all for helping out an old Grandpa, you're terrific.
