Can any player challenge Audio Aero Prestige SE ?

Avguygeorge - remember that the palyer takes A LOT of time to properly braeak in. 200-300 h at least. At first it will sound quite good, then the sound will deteriorate, so don't worry ! After 200-300h mark it should sound wonderful again.

This is 'cos of the V-Cap capacitors used in all the SE/Signature models.

The break in time of standard, non SE/Signature models is much shorter (they use Hovland coupling caps). At least that has been my expirience with my old Capitole mk II SE and non SE models (but they use same caps as SACD Prestige, so shouldn't be any diffferent).

The Audio Aero is a fantastic player, avguygeorge and there are many people using it directly as a full preamp.

You well need some good footers, the black diamond footers are excellent but the Acoustic system topline footers made the player much richer and more relaxed sounding. A a good power cord and place the player on a isolation bass, I use the HRS but here a black dimond base might be just the trick.

I just did a shoot out vs a $30k DCS stack and the AA blew it away! So if you got a Prestige you will be quite happy.
Do not have buyers remorse the player is excellent.

Hey, thanks guys--This is more like it---AND--Hi there David. I'll send you a note. I'm already thinking of some of the advantages like one less platform,one less cord,one less ic/dig.linc. Oh, I guess the word is simplification. My player is used and will be replacing my 14 year old Theta Data 3 and Audiomeca's Enkainthus.-- I guess you can see I haven't been buying every flavor of the month, transport,huh?? That Data 3 and the Gen 5 a cost more,back in that time and day. I bought both at the same time. That was before the 'a' mod came out.I later had the 'a' and still later, the 96/24 thing done. Living practically down the street from Theta didn't hurt; and they do take care of 'original' owners.

Adiooracle: I believe at the level we are talking about (AA Prestige, Esoteric X-01 Ltd., Wadia 581i etc.) it´s much a matter of taste and system synergy.

In my system used during shoot-out the GNSC modded 581 was a CLEAR winner over the competition. The Ayre C-5xe I´m using currently is a very good player for the money but reaches probably just 60% of the Wadias performance. It´s that good and will be replaced with the forthcoming Wadia 781i or the new EMMLabs CDSA. The latter one is a killer as well..

Oracle, don't you sell Audio Aero, Black Diamond, and Acoustic Systems?

Just curious.