Anyone tried the new AA Capitole Reference ?

I had the upgrade done to my Capitole, which I had for 2 years before. It's hard to know for sure how much can be attributed to the upgrade, but in my opinion the 750.00 upgrade is not worth it and I feel that it has lost a bit of musicality, with gains in transparency and imaging. They do use different cryo'd tubes, so this may have much to do with things, and also chage a couple of caps and put some Symposium pad under them. Seems like a ton of money for what they do. If I could have my regular Capitole back with the money I'd do it. They say 1800 hours to break in the upgrade, so perhaps I'm just not quite there yet.

I may be wrong but I think Ejlif is refering to the "SE" upgrade performed to the AA Capitole Mk II by Globe Audio Marketing.

Elberoth2 was asking about the new AA Capitole Reference, ie. Capitole Mk III that has just gone up on their website recently...

Exactly. I was talking about the new player, whith the new exterior design.

I haven't heard the latest version yet, but the SE upgrade is definatley well worth the money. The new tubes and caps do need to burn in for at leat two weeks, but even within the first few hours, the improvements in transparency and low end dynamics were very obvious. That's in direct comparison with an identical unmodified MkII that my friend brought over. Other that the tighter and more dynamic low and and the feeling that some veil is now gone, what struck us was the exceptional tonal purity and refinement in the midrange. I did not feel the upgraded player is less musical. On the contrary, I find it even more emotionally involving and lifelike. My friend's observations were exactly the same. He's just having his modified.

I did more research and it appears that the latest version, branded "Reference" is exactly the same as MkII, with the only difference being the cosmetisc. Here is a quote from Signature Sound website:

"Audio Aero Products get a Facelift!

At the 2005 CES this year, the folks at Audio Aero showed me what is now the new look on their products. Over the next few months, the current faceplate design will be changed to a new look that is a bit more cleaner in appearance. The changes are strictly external, with the insides of all the existing products remaining unchanged, though there are some price increases (mostly due to the devaluation of the US dollar vs. the Euro). For example the Prima CD player and integrated amps are now $2,500 US Retail. Also, having grown tired of the lengthy naming nomenclature of the Capitole 24/192 MKII, with the additional of the new faceplate, the current version of the Capitole is now just called the Capitole Reference (again, the changes here are external only)."