Anyone have their Audio Aero Capitole MKII yet?

Problem is, at 70-75% volume on the AA, the volume coming out of my 240W integrated is VERY low. With a standard CD player, my listening volume is around the 25 mark (out of 100). With the AA, i need to be at 50.

Now that I believe that my AA is fully burned in (it has been running 24/7 for 19 days, I can say that for MY tastes, in MY system, and compared to any other CD players I have heard in my system (Sonic Frontiers T3/P3, Cary 306/200. Sony SCD-1 and 9000ES, Wadia 850), this player is clearly superior to them all and, in most cases, by a LARGE margin. Without doing a full review at this time, suffice it to say that, as has been advertised and written about this player, it is the most analog player I have ever heard. BUT, I was worried that SOME people may interpret "analog" or "tube-like" as mushy, or as rounded or rolled off to achieve the lack of digital glare. NOT so with this player. It has more inner detail than I had expected, wonderfully extended highs and, MUCH to my surprise and amazement FULL, extended, deep, well-articulated bass. In fact, I was worried that I was going to have to "settle" for less than stellar bass with the AA to gain its analog like sound. NO WAY JOSE! This puppy has the most incredible and life-like harmonics, overtones, and transient attack on bass lines I have heard to date.

This player has great image, focus and soundstaging (both depth and width) now (it wasn't nearly as good out of the box or even one week into burn-in) and such a "you are there" lifelike presence it can be spooky.

I will stop here and simply say that for my system, this is the best player I have heard to date and one I could live with for a long time.

I would also like to mention that I had been HORRIBLY upset and frustrated with the people in France (AA) during the long wait and broken delivery promises, but the people at the importer, Globe Marketing (Matt and Jody) have been true gentlemen and a pure class act to deal with. As you may know from my previous threads, I (and I believe Badwisdom) have had some tracking problems with my unit. I called Matt and he said he was aware of the problem, that two or three players escaped with this problem (and the guy who allowed that to happen has been put to death! just kidding!), and he offered me either: (1) a new player (I decided I did not want to go through break-in again); (2) a one day turn-around for them to fix it; or (3) to send me the plug-in chip to fix the problem that I could install myself (I opted for #3). GREAT service from a great guy - Thanks Matt!

Anybody knows about the Lindeman D 680?
There was a rave review over at AA
about the player:

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hirez/messages/70261.html

and I wonder if anybody had a chance to comapre both players? The Lindemann has become the reference player of the German Stereo magazine and it plays SACDs also, which makes it really interesting for me.
My German audio dealer friend told me, he had a chance to listen to both and prefered the Lindemann. It is not because he is biased to make a quick sale, he does not carry either of the brands and would have to order both, so he could care less which brand a customer wants to buy.
BTW, the Lindeman seems to be machined out of piece of solid aluminium, so no "Mickey Mouse" drawer here, as one guy writes. This might not be important for the sound, but I always like well-built components.

More impressions :

definitely a special player.....there is that odd wow effect with the MKII..in fact Im saying it more often!!

Unfortunatly I NNED to go via a ML380S Pre due to my integration of a HT setup....however, I made a big mistake.. I listened to it without the Levinson 380S .. DOH !!!

There is a difference.. I think I found the sweet spot when hooked up to the 380S...but its still not the same when direct connect to the amps.

Difference..without the 380S
noise floor is better
Soundstage is better ...much
better image
bass is better
less pinpoint focus .. Levinson is very pinpoint in imaging

Not that the 380S corrupts the MKII but it does diminish the ambience and "fee" of the music.. I have yet to hear any issue with the full volume of the MKII (+5v) going into my ML380S. what am I supposed to hear.. distortion? clipping ?? I hear clean sound so far ..

Overall, amazing bass and woody sound..

I put on a live recording and there is like a mini 1-2ms audio drop cut over between tracks ???? .. this is not normal.. its an audio drop.. again only between track and usualy not a problem except during a live recording ...hummm...

all the best
Matt

my setup is at http://members.rogers.com/mzn50/

My AA Mk II just died on me :(

It started by the tray not knowing when the door was opened or not, meaning i couldnt read the TOC of new CDs, which meant i was basically *%!# ! I then fiddled with the tray and managed to solve this. Don't know why but it worked for 30mins, and then the electectronics went berserk. It now cycles between Init CD, No disc, Init CD, Reading and stopping, then starting up again with the Init etc... indefinitely. Ive restarted the machine several times, but it is definitely warped.

So its going back to the dealer tomorrow. Hope he can give me a new one, or fix this quickly, cause listening to my marantz today just wasnt quite the same thing :\