The"new" look Capitole

Ral, i tend to agree with your comments regarding the slightly "euphonic" nature of the Capitole when i compared it to my Linn CD-12. the slightly "tubey" sound added bloom and layering at the expense of detail and texture.

the main culpret here seemed to be the volume control on the "old" Capitole. when i used the Capitole volume control "all the way open" and instead attenuated with my Placette RVC the detail and texture increased closer to my CD-12 at the expense of some bloom and layering. this indicated to me that the volume control on the "old" Capitole is somewhat "colored" (a bad thing to me but maybe not to everyone in every system)......the question is "is the volume control in the "new" Capitole more neutral?

if the new Capitole has a more neutral volume control many that need or like the "color" of the "old" Capitole volume control for proper tonal balance in their system may prefer the "old".

i have been told that some 192/24 Capitole owners have "bypassed" the internal volume control and improved the performance by adding an RCA output before the volume control......this lines up with my experience. if you do the math Audio Aero can't put a world class volume control in this machine.

i do think the "old" 192/24 Capitole is maybe the 2nd best cd player i have ever heard in any case.

I agree with Mike. The Capitole's weakness seems to be the volume control - which ironically is the big draw to this player for many folks. I didn't try the Capitole with attenuators but thought it sounded best running through a good preamp.

FWIW, I have two of the new version Capitoles on order. One is already sold, the other is to become a demo unit. My older version demo unit is already spoken for. It has been a very well received product for whomever I have played it for.

As to the volume control on the old version, I agree that it does have an impact on the sound. When using the Captiole as a CD player, I found that I preferred the sound at about 1 to 2 O Clock on the volume control. The older version also benefited from a set of walker audio Valid Point and resonance control discs under the player, the use of a good power cord (my preference is for the Cardas Golden Reference power cord - I've also heard the one of the better Shunyata cords work well on the player). Also the player responded well to (thin) damping discs placed on top of the CD.

Happy Listening
Rich Brkich

Interesting that this dealer has heard the new Capitole since none came into the country other than 3 for the Montreal show and they were shipped directly there from France.Globe Audio had not heard it until yesterday for the first time.Considering they are the distributor you would figure they would had heard it first before any dealer.From talking to Jim at Globe Marketing he had only heard a prototype and that was 1 week ago.Personaly I would not listen to anyone until it is in hand which will be for some of us dealers Tuesday of next week.Once we have it, than reliable comments can and will be made.

Lordgorian: There are only two Capitoles in North America and they arrived yesterday. Both are in Montreal and certainly your source is mistaken. The word is there are dramatic improvements. The bass is much better, more transparency and resolution and no loss of the wonderful musicality the previous version has.

I ordered 22 and most of them are sold. I highly doubt there would be a dealer who would get one before me or any of the other dealers. They will all ship at the same time.

Best Regards,

Jonathan