Okay... Guess I'll chime in here. I've owned all three. And they are all fantastic players whichever player you ultimately choose, you cannot go wrong.
The Electrocompaniet is similar to the Audio Aero and the Audio Aero is similar to the Mephisto but the Electrocompaniet and Mephisto are quite different. Does that make sense?
With the EMC-1, I felt a rush of energy and vibrance in my system that I had never experienced before. There were details in the music that I'd never heard - sometimes I'd wonder if the details I was hearing were even on the CD!! But ultimately the EMC-1 sounds a bit more electronic than the next two players. Of the three players, the EMC-1 is the least emotional and hence doesn't have the passion of the AA or AM. This is not to say it has no emotion - it just has a bit less than the other players. The EMC-1 has a bigger soundstage than the others.
The Audio Aero sounds similar to the EMC-1 in that it has comparable dynamics and punch but sounds a bit less electronic or mechanical and a wee bit more seductive. None of the detail is missing it just presents itself differently. The sound stage presented by the AA wasn't quite as big as the EMC-1. The AA makes things a little more intimate and defines the players in a more realistic way.
The Audiomeca Mephisto takes the seduction presented by the Audio Aero to another level but in doing this seems to loose some of the dynamics and punch. The Mephisto takes an additional step toward sounding less electronic. The Mephisto has an incomparable delicacy and 3D sound stage.
The three players all have their issues too...
On the EMC-1, sometimes the buttons on the face plate will stick when you manually flip through the tracks by depressing the button. In order to fix, you will have to remove the faceplate.
On the Audio Aero, sometimes it forgets if its door is closed or open. The unit actually sounds better with the door open but when you put in a new CD, you will have to close the door and then re-open to get it to initialize.
The Mephisto II can be slower to track and initialize a disk than the other players. Also, it produces a high pitched digital noise which can be heard through some systems - but only when there is no volume. Once the volume is turned up, the noise goes away... weird! The noise is usually filtered out at the preamp on most systems. There is a fix however - but requires a new board.
Ultimately I cannot recommend one of these players above the other. It is more about your listening preference than anything else. They're all great. Some people listen at different levels than others and the level you listen at will dictate your preference.
To me, there is a difference between violinists. Some have soul and emotion...others do not. CD players are the same way.
