MUSE Erato II - Anyone using this player?

Hi Mitch, good luck with the Erato assuming you do get one it'd be very interesting to hear what you think. You mention the Hifi+ reviews, I had them to hand when I had the player and felt they offered a pretty fair reflection of what I heard. The player had an uncanny way of at first sounding a bit ordinary and at the same time very natural. I ended up listening through entire albums where I'd usually skip through some of them.

DeFride..saw your response about teh Erato. I was curious why your system and its makeup sound better now. I own the Erato and love it. Any info about how to select rest of system to compliment its strengths would be appreciated. Thanks, RKochies

RKochies, I had only 3 weeks with the Erato and my system has changed quite a bit since then but I've fond memories. I ran the Erato into Muse Model 200 and Audio Analogue Verdi amps. These drove Sonus Faber Grand Piano's. I've kept the Model 200 but have been through speakers since settling on Kharma's. They offer up most notably greater scale. My impression is that the Emm Labs is a tonally richer player. The Erato seemed to be very natural, neutral and linear. There was no over or under emphasis anywhere and it made music beautifully. What I'm listening to now has similar attributes but more believable scale and thats down to the speakers more than anything. My guess is the Erato will suit a system with similar traits but it'd be important to make sure that other components didn't tend toward the lean side. I think the bass could end up sounding lightweight in that sort of setup. The Erato offers plenty of bass but only when its there, no emphasis, if this area of the system were light I'd guess it'd not come across well. All IMHO of course and bare in mind I've not heard one in my current setup.

Defride...Thanks for the update. I use the Erato with the attenuated stage fed directly into my modified Edge NL10.1. It is very musical. The speakers are Nearfield Pipedreams and all cabling is Crystal Clear silvers. Also using Rel sub...I find it natural and relaxing...none of the old fatigue my Krell system presented. Thanks again, Bob Koch

Hi guys, I have been communicating with Kevin and my upgrade is underway. The result will be an as-new Erato II with the new style faceplate shown on their website. I am still debating whether to have the attenuator module installed. When I asked Kevin about the differences between playing the Erato II through the attenuator module and through his Model Three Signature preamp (which I own) he said,

There should be no discernible difference between the two configurations you describe, it (the attenuator module) has nearly identical characteristics as the Model Three Signature.

He went on to say,

I will pass along that some individuals have expressed that they like the attenuator module even better than the Model Three Signature. This may be because of the fewer number of interconnects (just one pair to the amplifier) it may be because the module is so low in cost. I myself find them very similar, too similar to make a call. Certainly the feature set of the Model Three Signature is much greater than the attenuator module, but for a really simple system, it (the attenuator module) is nearly a perfect device.

Since I already own the Three Signature, it seems I would not need the attenuator, but I am curious about whether it would sound as good, or better, than the preamp, and since my only source will be the player, it really would be a simple solution for me - player to amps to speakers. Another consideration is that even with the attenuator installed, I would still have the option to instead use the unattenuated outputs to drive an external preamp like my Lamm LL2 Deluxe, which I find to be sonically excellent.