Would the Audio Aero Capitole better Theta

Mes-Very welly put, me and a friend are in the process of comparing his Audio Aero Capitole and my Accuphase Digital pre and it is amazing how good they both are(which is scary because the msrp. on my Accuphase is 4 fold the price of the capitole, YIKES!). One would think that with a price difference of that much there would be more noticeable improvements, only thing that I have heard betters the accuphase is the Boulder gear and Burmester, which both are also more $$$, such is life in this hobby. So I guess what I am saying is yea I agree that the capitole is a giant killer.

BTW The dealer my buddy bought his from told him it sounds better with the top open, is this common knowledge with these players? and if so why does the top being open effect the sound?

The Capitole may be all of this and more, but they're apparently harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa.

Say, has anyone seen one for sale lately? Has anyone that doesn't already own one seen one at all, anywhere?

Come on, somebody, cough one up.

I think that is another good point to make Waltersalas if a product is NEVER available used, and when they are they sell very quickly and for a good price(for the seller) it says a lot for an audio product. The new interconnects I want I have never seen for sale used, so I will have to buy them new and I HATE(I am using the word hate here folks) paying retail for anything, but they are worth it. Falls into the same catagory as the Capitole. Funny thing is a year ago this time nobody had heard of the capitole and the Resolution Audio CD-55 was all the rave in the digital world. Like all things audio this time next year the next latest and greatest product will be our subject of discourse, and the capitole will be yesterdays news.

A system that sounds "right" with the Theta, will not sound "right" with the Audio Aero, and vice versa. The Audio Aero is way more natural and the Theta sounds hyped up. I sold my Theta and Meridian gear for Audio Aero and Res Audio CD-55 respectively and am extremely glad of it. The Capitole and CD-55 are CD players that you can very easily build a balanced sounding system around.

I have not heard the Capitole, but the two best I've heard lately is the Mark Levison 390s, and the new 24/192 Camelot Uther Mark 4 (DAC only w/ volume control). Both were driving straight into the amps, which I have never been too crazy about. Can't beleive these DACs and player sounded this good without a nice tube pre. In fact they sounded better direct, can't beleive I said that, but it's all in the hearing!