Linn Unidisk or Musical Fidelity kW SACD or ???

As far as a wide and solid soundstage I would rate the Classe and Linn 1st, Music Fidelity and Esoteric ($13,000) 2nd, Wdia last. The most remarkable quality of the Classe is the immediacy, you become totally involved in the music as if the musicians were in your livingroom. CDs sound so good that you'll never care if there is a new format. SACD is even better. Before you fork out the big bucks definitly check this one out.

Ok, here is where I am. Today I brought home the Ayre C5xe and the Linn 2.1. After listening for 3 hours, I give a slight edge to the Linn on CD, and to the Ayre on SACD. I tried DVD-A in both, but the Linn choked on all 3 DVD-A discs, so I skipped that round. Overall, the Ayre seemed more solid on the bass. The Linn seemed to throw a wider soundstage, which was great on some recordings, but not so great on others. For example, on recordings where the Ayre seemed to compress the stage a bit, at least it was able to keep the vocalist in the center. The Linn, on the other hand, seemed to take these same vocalists and s-t-r-e-t-c-h them to the point where they were coming out of both the left and right speakers in an artificial way. Having said that, I must admit that on an SACD recording of Vivaldi's Four Season, the wide soundstage presented by the Linn player was really great. So in this respect, I have to agree with Steve's comment about the Linn and its ability to create a wide soundstage.

At this point, I am mostly just confused. I look back at my notes, and I see that my biggest critism of the Ayre (its somewhat narrow soundstage) is a mirror-image of my biggest complaint of the Linn (its too-wide soundstage on acoustic and vocal recordings). If I had to choose tonight, I would probably give the edge to the Ayre unit, mostly because of its general balance and the fact that it beats the Linn on price. My local Ayre dealer is also a dealer for Esoteric, so I think I will ask him for a demo of the X-01....Let's see if the big price difference also brings a noticeable performance difference. Unfortunately, he does not carry Classe, so I may have to find another source for a SACD-2 demo unit.

Despite my angst, I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun!

Thanks for the comparison. BTW, are you running the Ayre balanaced through a fully balanced system? That would make a difference. Ayre gear performs best balanced.

Also, it occurs to me that at this price level you may want to consider the EMM gear, which is superb.

Bsal -- Yup; XLR connections from the CD player to the pre and on to the amp. No question, the balanced connections reduce the noise enormously. EMM...now wouldn't that be nice!

Dear Tin Ears:
Your trepidation was justified -- nobody has said a word about the Musical Fidelity KW SACD. I've owned one for a couple of months now and here are my subjective ramblings I posted elsewhere. I hope that it helps you. I think that the unit is fantastic, and deeply satisfied with its performance. I have not compared it to any of the other units you're considering, but have listened to a fair amount of high end players, and wouldn't trade the KW for any of them. Here is my earlier post:

Hello fellow Musical Fidelity and fidelity fans:
I've been eagerly awaitng some reviews of the new KW SACD player, as I was lucky enough to get one in the first wave. I finally realized that I probably should just share my enthusiasm for the unit.
My KW SACD joins my TriVista 300 integrated, which power Wilson Sophias, and all are connected by Transparent cables. I listen to blues of all eras, blues based and psychedelic rock primarily from 66-71 (and some stuff that the still living dinosaurs from that era currently put out) and a bit of late 70's punk/garage/indie stuff. Also, Pink Floyd, Bowie, the Velvets, Norah Jones, the White Stripes, the Stooges, Dylan, the Stones, some reggae, and whatever else is good and/or catches my fancy. I've been known to listen to some stuff just because of the sonic ear/mind candy quality (it just sounds so good) but generally I hate myself in the morning.
That being said, I am bowled over by the KW SACD. I had trouble imagining how my system would improve (for my ears; after all, this is all subjective). My soundstage was deep and three dimensional, high and wide. Dynamics were great, instrument placement was good, and the sound allowed you to hear quiet little touches while other instruments were booming away.(I won't embarass myself by telling what my prior cd player was . . . oh, what the hell -- it was a much loved and faithful Denon that will be of voting age in another two or three years . . .)
That being said, I was knocked out - out of the box - by the dramatic improvement brought by the KW. The soundstage, already big, became HUGE, as if a billboard of sound appeared in my listening room. The low end not only tightened up, but whole areas of it appeared for the first time. The dynamic range is spectacular, from a whisper to deafening in the same passage (music permitting). The broadening of the soundstage was also accompanied by what a music loving nonaudiophile friend descrbed as "being surrounded by the music." Before, my system exhibited great depth; now, the music seems to come out and wrap around you, and is far less constrained by the lateral edges of my Sophias, as it once was.
The clarity and precision of instrument placement, and reproduction of minute detail is, well, startling. You really can hear the pick hitting the guitar strings; you can feel the steel of the brushes washing across the drums. Speaking of feel, the emotional impact of the music through the KW is remarkable (I'm running out of adjectives). More than once, and to more than just me, the music has brought up goosebumps -- flushes of them, in fact. You know what I listen to, but okay, I'll admit it, Norah Jones brought on tears.
I have done a litle bit of back-and-forth between the tube and solid state output stages, but I've pretty much settled on the tube stage. The realism, presence, feel, warmth, palpability, emotion of it is more to my liking. The solid state stage is good, don't get me wrong, but it seems to trade a bit of these qualities for a bit of a higher frequency push (and maybe even a bit more volume). In one or two instances I found it helpful as a sort of a limited equalizer, but on the whole, I can live without it.
Now, SACD. Aaaah, SACD. With the KW, SACD is like uber-vinyl. There is a distinct smoothness and analogue quality imparted by the (admittedly very few) SACD discs I've spun on the ol' KW. Because the KW does what it does so magically, I might never have considered that there was yet another level of sound reproduction possible. Having heard the SACD side, however, I know differently. All of the redbook playback qualities are, well, just a little more yet with SACD playback on the KW. Now, the hunt for SACD's begins!
Well, there you have it -- my thoroughly unscientific, biased, subjective and rambling thoughts on a great player. Perhaps the greatest praise I can lavish on the KW comes in the form of my wife's reactions. She, who upon learning of my, er, investment in my self, I mean system, quietly refused to come into my listening room. Ever. Until the arrival of the KW. Drawn in by the huge, beautiful sound, she begrudgingly confessed, "I hate to admit it, but that really is amazing." She, who was quietly plotting ways to burn down only this room of the house, looked at me, looked at my system and completely seriously said, "We're going to need a bigger room for this."
Bill P

I love the piece. Its simply amazing. Hope that this helps.
Bill