What is new with the Memory Player?

I heard the player at the RMAF in 2006. The demo was held in the Virtual Dynamics room. In the tests that were performed there was only one song from one CD that IMO did not sound better reproduced by the Memory Player. Of course we're talking about a large room in a hotel that had some interesting equipment that I'm not familiar with. Not to mention the Memory Player is around $10k. It was getting pumped up by Clement Perry and the house player was a Wadia 581 I believe. Take what I have to say with a grain of salt, but I'm happy with my existing digital set-up and don't see a need to spend $10k on one, no matter how good it sounds.

The Memory Player got its public unveiling at HE 2007.

The Player was in several rooms:

Laufer Teknik was using it in an all Behold system.

Scanea loudspeakers/Nova Physics has a room.

Audio Doctor, me, was showing it. The response from the public was outstanding, we were using the DAC of the Audio Aero Prestige and comparing optical drive playing vs Memory and the Memory player was unbelievable. This is the next evolution in digital, mark my words you will be hearing a lot more about this product. The GUI is primitive and the build quality could be refined but the sound is the closest to analog I have ever heard out of digital bar none and I have been doing this professionally for 20 years.

As Audio Oracle reports, the Memory Player ("MP") was in a number of rooms. It was in the Laufer Teknik set-up featuring Behold equipment and speakers, which I heard for thirty minutes on Friday night. Thirty minutes is totally inadequate to evaluate high-end equipment, and the system, room and music were totally unfamiliar to me. That said, the system sounded damn good (as it should have sounded given the price). I heard some overhang on male voice, but it takes work (usually a lot of work) to get speakers to perform at their best in a given room and it was the first night of the show, so this is not a criticism, merely an observation.

I did not hear the MP in Audio Oracle's room, as they were still preparing the player at that point (the MP has to be programmed as part of its installation).

By the way, Dave (a/k/a "Audio Oracle"), you had a very good set-up. Congrats.

Purchased a Memory Player and expect delivery within 2 weeks. I have previously owned the Meitner combo (non SE version) but was less than impressed. I have high expectations and if it doesn't deliver, it's going back. I have a friend with a Esoteric P70 transport and we'll compare against the MP.

It will be connected to Prism Dream DA1 DAC (relatively unknown because its not sold to consumers but is used extensively in many high end studios), balanced digital connection with the DAC serving as the master clock - BNC connection. Running active PMC IB2 speakers in a dedicated room designed by Rives.

I'll post my impressions after I've had some time with it.

I and my audio buddy were very disappointed with the sound in the Behold room which sounded like hifi and not like music at all. We left the room after a few minutes shaking our head in disbelieve that such expensive electronics can sound so mediocre.
No doubt the setup was poor. I heard the Memory player at a friends place and was very impressed!