If there ever was a sleeper it is Muse. I had a Muse 100 years ago before my Bedini 25/25 and that sound has never left me. I bought a Muse 10 in February and have never looked back. I compared it to Theta Compli, Wadia 861 and AudoNote 3.1x. As you can see, there was quite a price range, although performance was close. Even with the Muse sitting in the middle price-wise, its performance was the best (or to be more PC, the best to my ears in my environment and system, however, it proved replicable in other systems).
The Wadia had all that you could ever want from a CD player. It was close to analogue and almost engaged you. It played just plain music. But the Muse out played it in terms of specificity. I heard more from the Muse and it was clearly more engaging. All of this may have been at the expense of a small amount of musicality, less than 5% if that, if you could measure it. It was a hard call. Was it real or was it Memorex???? However with a $2500+ price difference, there was no contest, especially with the Muse playing DVDs.
The next comparisons had more clear cut results. The Muse's midbase repsones was significantly more accurate than the AudioNote and Theta. It was cleaner and more detailed and it just seamed more natural. Compared to the AN, the Muse sound stage was wider, deeper, more real. Compared to the Theta there was no digital harshness in the upper octaves.
This machine is a home run. Congratulations Kevin. However, this in one opinion and it fulfilled my needs. It will stay in my system.