Anyone have their Audio Aero Capitole MKII yet?

Bryans,
I'm just being snide re my experiences working for a medical instrument manufacturer just north of Paris in the 80s. The LAST thing you want from Southern European manufacturers in particular is a low-serial number item after a redesign, as the retweaking continues ad nauseum.
We all remember the old adage about never buying the first six months' product from Detroit, right?
Well it's no different in the high end.
Re sounding different: my point is that assurance of the critical qualities of a newly-redesigned product in a manufactured lot is VERY difficult. The odds of getting two items that are clones is MUCH lower than after necessary process and component controls are tightened.
One might argue that CDPs are electronic...digital, and thus not subject to the variability of a transducer like a speaker or microphone/cartridge, but my point is that consecutive aerial numbers may even have DIFFERENT parts in them, not just more variability in tolerances that aren't tightened up by the necessity to do so that production time, market feedback, and durability (MTBF) issues might provide. Hope I'm being reasonably clear....

Badwisdom... Thanks for checking with AA...very helpful. If you do again speak to them, would you inquire about the volume control having to be in the 80-100 range, where-as with the MK I the volume would be at about 11 to 12 o’clock to produce the same loudness? I do NOT use a preamp. Also, if you would, inquire about the grounding issue (ground loop…hum through the speakers). Is this player grounded differently than the MK I? Or, do I have a defect? Anyone else heard this problem???

I too am frustrated by the fact that the player interrupts tracks that segue from one track to the next. I guess we can thank Philips for that.

For those who want to use the Audio Aero with an integrated or a pre, the manufacturor recommends using 3/4 of the volume level (approx. 2v output) and using the preaamp to adjust the gain.

Cheers

And i forgot to add that the Capitole's balanced XLR outputs is wired using EUROPEAN standards, so if you use it direct with an amp which is using US standards you may get the noise i was previously complaining about.

Cheers

Well, all I can say is that I did NOT make any mistake in selling my Sonic Frontiers T3/P3 combo. Don't get me wrong, the T3/P3 combo was a stellar performer in many ways and had LOOKS and a remote that put the AA to shame. Ah, but it is the sonics that count for me so I don't fret about the cheesy remote or what I consider to be a Mickey Mouse sliding door mechanism. In my system and for my tastes, the AA is simply more enjoyable than the T3/P3.

I am also glad (KNOCK ON WOOD) that the tracking problem has stopped. Badwisdom's posts also confirm my intitial finding that the AA sounded MUCH better through my Lamm L2 Ref at about 70-75% (as opposed to 100%) with the Lamm providing more gain (I am still going to try direct into the amps when fully burned in).

There is NO congestion (as I heard at first with the AA at full volume), now the bass is deep, full, impactful and tight (thank God), there is such a lack of digititis that I don't think I can go back to any other "digital" sounding player again (which include almost everything out there save a few). This player is all it had been praised about to me. Oh sure, I can nit pick the hardware, but when I hit the PLAY button I couldn't care less about the hardware.

A FULL review when I get it fully burned in and used to it.