Guess I should chime in here...
Having owned a Meridian 508.24, Krell KPS28c, Wadia 860, Marantz SA-1, Electrocompaniet EMC-1 Mk II and now the AudioMeca Mephisto II over the past year, I must say that my $100 Toshiba DVD player sounds great!! Especially in systems connected to faulty wiring and broken outlets. sorry... I'm still a little shaken from my last digital thread
But seriously folks, of the bunch - the AudioMeca Mephisto II is a tremendous - absolutely outstanding CD player. I took it to see a few friends at a local high end shop specializing in ANALOG ONLY (quite an arrogant bunch) and they were shocked at how analog it sounded - but it did need a good power cord to get them really excited!
At the shop, when I walked in with the Mephisto II CD player, they pointed to an Accuphase DP-85 sitting packed up in the box next to the door and told me they didn't even want to listen to mine - they stated that the Accuphase was the best digital player in the world, and they hated it so much they couldn't wait for FedEx to come get it!
Anyhow.. I've auditioned the Cary 306/200 with lousy gear and because of that, I have no comment.
I unfortunately have never had a chance to listen to the Capitole (which uses the exact same DAC as the Mephisto) but frankly, given the level of performance & cool looks of the Mephisto, I didn't even want to try anything else.