Wadia 861 or Aero Capitole MK1?

You better be prepared to wait if you want a Capitole MK 2. I have been waiting prepaid for almost 3 months for mine, they keep saying they are going to ship and then 2 weeks later they say they are getting ready to ship. I am going to compare it to my Wadia 860x and see what I like best.

The Capitole MKII is suppose to be in some dealers hands early next week.

My Audio Aero Cap II should be in my hands on or before June 7th so I'll have a real good idea which one is better. I did try the Wadia 860 as a dac using the SimAudio Eclipse as a transport and was blown away at how much better the sound was than using the 860 as a stand alone CD player. I have the Audio Aero Prima CD player and it is killer, so the Cap MKII should be a couple of steps better yet!

Aron: Will you have a chance to directly compare these two players in a store or at home? This would be preferable, but it's not always possible I realize. Having heard Wadia and Audio Aero extensively, I feel that they are both outstanding musically, but have distinct personalities that will rub each person differently. It's always hard to describe, but my ears tell me the following: In the midrange, Wadia has superb accuracy in timbre and dynamics, while the AA has that nice warm 3-D realism found in tube gear. In the bass the Wadia is clearly more defined, whereas the AA is a bit on the ripe side (the MKII is said to improve upon this). In the upper mids and treble the AA is smoother and slightly less extended than Wadia. This comes across initially as less transparency in the AA, but over time it is less fatiguing. (Wadia can be made much smoother up top via the Great Northern Sound mods.) I suspect that your final opinion will partly depend on where you fit in the "yin-yang" spectrum, or in the solid-state v. tube spectrum. I'd bet that Wadia tends to be prefered by many in the SS/detail/speed camp, and AA by the tube/organic camp. Huge generalizations I know, but maybe that's a first approximation.
Other things I've found: Wadia sounds nice run through tube amps, while the AA sounds nice run through SS amps (sort of balances out the character of the CD players). BOTH CD players sound more palpable without an active line stage, IMO. (Especially true for the AA.)
So in conclusion, do whatever you can to borrow the two units to try out in your system. Good luck!

Finally, an honest and educated assesment of the virtues and differences between the Wadia 861 and the AA Capitole.

Thank you RAL. Thank you.