Musical Fidelity kw DM 25 Transport and DAC

I replaced a 6 yr old ARCAM FMJ CD 23 with the MF kw 25 duo nearly 6 months back. While the Arcam FMJ was a solid performer,the MF 25 is in an altoghter different league. Is the MF 25 the best cd playback out there ? Probably not.Given the limited audio choices available to an audiophile in India the MF represents a great buy judged by the yardstick of purchaser happiness. In the context of an all tube/ESL system still in the infant stages of break in, the MF 25 duo is a superb performer. The rest of the gear : Quad 2905s, CJ CT5 preamp, CJ LP70S poweramp, Hydra 6 power conditioner, MBL audio rack and all Cardas cables ( Golden Ref/Golden Cross),Clearaudio Emotion TT with a Project Phono box as phono preamp.I can detail several ways IMHO how the MF, to my ears, is a superior performer to the Arcam eg retreival of detail. In the Natalie Merchant Live concert cd(forget the name)there is a long passage of monologue(Spanish ??) at the end of the cd which I heard for the first time thru the MF.I have owned the cd for nearly 4 years !!My earlier gear while lacking the finesse and musicality of the present system was fairly respectable in its own right eg Bryston 14 BST, B&W CDM 9NT and later ML Odssey etc. I can go on about the delicacy of the upper registers, the bass slam, the overall musicality of the player but I would do less justice tnan the Stereophile review of July 2006, which I agree with.
If you have the good fortune and the circumstances to review every or most highend players out there , then choose what sounds sweetest to your ears but be sure to include the the MF in your short list of must hear demos.
Cheers

just ignore what elberoth2 said about it. This guy is anti M.F. type of person. I know his posts from other forums. KW DM25 is a good value for money product.

I'm curious what kind of SOTA source components have you compared your MF DAC/CDT to, to clam that "KW DM25 is a good value for money product".

Are you talking about your budget Arcam CDP ? Just curious.

I have never ever had any cd player which was less than 2000 GBP, so, you know what I have, had from other forums that I don't need to name them here...in past you argued how Musical Fidelity gear bad... now I have 2 systems still using kw dm25, kw 500 despite my new setup(Boulder,Pass Labs,) still enjoy Kw 500 and Kw Dm25 setup.
For redbook cd replay Kw Dm25 is quite sufficient if it is used in good systems. Today Michael Fremer of stereophile is also using kw dm25 even his speakers retails moreless 40.000 USD (Wilson Maxx2)
Poor elberoth2....what Musical Fidelity has done such a bad thing to you? Share with us!

Michalson killed my doughter, LOL.

Seriously though - I have absolutely no problems with MF, other than the fact that their gear is - in general - poorely engineered and sounds medicore at best.

I really wish MF spend as much money on the design of their products as they do on marketing.

A close friend of mine, demoed the kw DM25 alongside the similarly priced EMM Labs CDSD and Acoustic Arts players and the both wiped the floor with MF, big time. The performance difference was HUGE.

I have only heard the kw DM25 at show conditions, twice, and each time MF room got my vote for the worst sound of the show.

BTW - Mr. Fremer can be hardly regarded as digital expert.

EOT