To which other did you compared your Enkianthus to

Other than the Meitner, I think the Enkthuisas 24/192 and the Audio Aero 24/192 set the bar for CD playback. Additionally one of my friends had the big dollar DCS setup and traded it for Audiomeca gear. He felt it was sonically superior. It's as good as, and maybe even a little bit better than my $8000 SCD-1 (5K + 3.2K in mods) on redbook CD. I found I listened to the audiomeca on CD's more than the Sony. Maybe it was the new toy syndrome.

The Sony is deathly quiet and has finer detail but the Audiomeca has a warmer sound and the 24/192 upsampling really does ad more air to the presentation. It's kinder to recordings. I almost kept it but the difference was not enough for me. In fact when it was cold out of the box, I could barely perceive a difference using instant a/b on my preamp. After a few days of being on, the Audiomeca bloomed out a bit more. I did hear it against the Audio Aero one of my friends brought over. The AA had that glorious tubed output but the Audiomeca was quieter and had this smooth and relaxing midrange. My friend felt the AA was better and had more detail. Depending on the day, I could choose either.

I've put the Sony up against a stock SCD-1, a Marantz SA-1 and a Wadia 850 and it completely blew them away.

Note: I did have an Enkthuisas for sale but is is already sold so no conflicts of interest.

Was it the newest Enkianthus you compared?

It was a year 2001 24/192. Beautiful piece. Both in sound and appearance. Very musically voiced. The tubed metronome CD players are voiced similarly.