Audio Refinement CD Complete Alpha Version

My experience differs from Timrhu's. After listening to a -lot- of CDP's last year the Alpha is what I chose, and it's been great. It is much, much improved from the original version in essentially every way. It really does benefit from power cords. I heard it back to back against a Resolution Opus 21. With stock cords on both, the Opus 21 was obviously better. When we put a Shunyata Python Vx on the AR, I actually liked the sound better than the Opus 21 with the stock cord.

That's obviously a bit meaningless in terms of an actual comparison, but it goes to show that power cords -can- make a huge difference, especially with this player.

I owned the Alpha version for a couple of months. It was an ok player, smooth operation along with smooth sound but I think it's a bit overpriced. Sold mine for less than $500 if I recall. I actually preferred the sound from my NAD C541i which is still in service. The NAD retailed at half the price.
I also owned the Complete integrated (non-Alpha) which I am sorry I sold. It was an extremely nice piece of gear. I would recommend the integrated amp to anyone looking for a low powered quality amp.
The stock power cord was an 18 gauge unit, looked generic to me. I switched to a 16 gauge power cord but didn't notice a difference