CD PLAYER AUDIO AERO Capitole Reference Krzysztof Kalinkowski

Preparations for this test made me realize how difficult it is sometimes to plan what will be reviewed. Chief chose for me a proposition of one of the Italian manufacturers of interesting audio devices first, but after two weeks of waiting it turned out, that the player will not reach me in time. So, a bit unexpectedly, we had to implement plan B. This plan B turned out to be a player, that was on my ‘to listen to’ list for a long time, but somehow I never managed to listen to it. It is the newest incarnation of the CD player from the French company Audio Aero – Capitole Reference. Besides being an interesting player it had another asset – it was available for testing immediately. So I packed it in my car and brought home. This is really an interesting device, being a bit more than just a big toploader with an interesting looks. In fact this is three in one – a CD player, analog preamplifier and a digital to analog converter with electrical and optical inputs – there is even an ST-optical.

Arrived at home I unpacked it quickly from the box and placed on the top shelf of my audio table. The player presented itself royally. Completely made from aluminum and steel painted black. Only the handle of the acrylic cover of the disc loading opening and the buttons on the front panel were silver in color. Also the manually operated cover moved ideally. I had the opportunity to operate some toploaders, among others MBL and CEC, and I must confess that in the Audio Aero it moved in a most noble way. The good impression was amended with a dot matrix display and a metal remote. According to the distributor the player was not used for a long time, so I put in it the first disc that was around, placed the puck on it, pressed ‘play’ and ‘repeat all’ on the remote and left for two days.

SOUND

First a few words about connections. I connected the Capitole to my equipment as a CD. This means that I plugged it in one of the line inputs in my preamplifier and set the volume to match my reference player, the Bluenote Koala Tube, to -08 (according to the distributor -10 equals 2V rms on the output). Listening with the power amplifier plugged directly to the Audio Aero I left for later. I have also connected the Koala as a drive using the coaxial S/PDIF cable.

I started listening with the Al diMeola discs Orange and blue (Verve, Universal, 523724-9, 1994, CD) and The Infinite Desire (Telarc, CD-83433, 1998, CD). The player sounded with a very open, bright sound. The quality of the treble was splendid from the ‘first listen’. Every instrument, every timbre could be easily followed. Al’s discs are very good for this, because in the dense arrangements there are many percussive instruments, and following them gives much joy in listening. The resolution of this sub-range is above average and at the same time the Audio Aero was able to sound this way without exaggeration – there was absolutely no morgue, where every sound is audible but there is no music. I tried to catch the Capitole on stretching the treble loading discs with various kinds of music, including Yello from the disc Essentials (Mercury, 512390-2, 1992, CD) and I did not succeed. The side effects of such presentation of the treble are two things – first of all there was an incredible space. The sound stage was huge, it went far beyond the speakers to the sides and deep into the apartment of my neighbors to the back, and every instrument, acoustic or electronic, had its place. The contours of the instruments were very clear. Secondly every shortcoming of the recording in this sub-range is presented very clearly. Audiophile recordings rarely have such flaws, but commercial ones… I bought lately a disc from Chris Botti Italia (Decca, 478046-4, 2008 PL-edition, CD) and this disc has dramatically clipped fragments, especially well heard on the first and third piece. Well, there will probably never be a Japanese edition of the disc, so I have to get used to this… In general I heard a similar character of the treble in the Lektor Prime Ancient Audio (test HERE), the favorite player of the Chief Editor. The midrange did not stand off from the treble. It was neutral and natural. I have not heard any coloration. The vocals were reproduced in a very natural way, the male and the female ones. I listened to discs from Kari Bremnes, Amy Winehouse, Rufus Wainwright and Peter Gabriel with pleasure. The voices were vivid, clean, without any nasality or other coatings. The resolution of the midrange was on a comparable level as the treble was. No sounds flew together, every musician was easily identifiable. Complete with the treble and bass the sound was really of high quality. One thing that I would improve is saturation. Here the Bluenote Koala with NOS Philips SQ tubes showed, that it can be done better. In comparison the Audio Aero had less vivid colors, especially of the vocals.

The bass. This is a further asset of the Audio Aero. It kept rhythm superbly, here and Yello and Radiohead The Best of (EMI, 50999 228505 2 2, 2008, CD) made the feet move on their own (although I would not say that this is dance music…). Its control, differentiation and separation were fantastic. Nothing flew around, nothing boomed. Also the power of the sound was reproduced well. The kettledrum hits on the Mike Oldfield disc Music of the Spheres (Universal Music, 0602517636095, 2008 PL-edition, CD) sounded like kettledrum and not a snare drum. However listening to them one could hear slight withdrawal of the lower bass. This is absolutely nothing crucial, and it does not change the evaluation of the whole sub-range, but I just mention the fact. The timbre differentiation of the bass was also very well. There were no doubts which instrument is playing. Listening to the Modern Jazz Quartet Blues on Bach (Atlantic/Warner, 7567-81393-2, 1974, CD) it was a pleasure to follow the lines of the bass or the lower registers of the vibraphone.
I described every sub-range separately, but actually in this player the most important thing is something, that cannot be described that way. I am talking about reproducing the whole sound image. This player is really very equal and thorough in what it does. No sub-range is preferred or treated loosely. The micro and macro-dynamics are on a very high level. Regardless if we listened to an orchestra playing ‘piano’ or to a ‘wall of sound’ with guitar riffs and pulsating bass – it was always OK. The player never forgot that it had to play music and not just reproduce the sounds. For me it was also important, that this is a universal player, meaning that you can listen to all kinds of music, from classical to metal, from jazz to electronics and the character of sound was kept.

My description would not be complete without mentioning the Capitole directly to the power amplifier. Interestingly there were no big changes to the sound. The sound just became ‘drier’, I missed some harmonics and saturation, but this was not a big problem. Also the devices plugged to the analog inputs sounded well.
As the final test I listened to the built-in D/A converter, using the Koala as the source of CD and DVD signals. In both cases it worked flawlessly, and the characteristics of the sound of the Audio Aero was kept. It was especially interesting with the 24/96 signal – the resolution increased even further and still the fluency of the sound remained.

Summarizing – Audio Aero Capitole is a very good and versatile player. One of the most interesting I heard to date. I think, that it would be a perfect partner for tube power amplifiers, with which it could create a perfectly sounding tandem. But even with a good preamplifier it is a good proposition for listeners, that require musicality and at the same time lots of details from the sound source.

DESCRIPTION

Audio Aero Capitole is a CD player of the toploader type with the built in preamplifier. This is not only the question of the output voltage of the player (this reaches 7Vrms) but we also have three line inputs, including one balanced (XLR). The player can also work as a digital to analog converter for external digital sources. At our disposition we have four digital sources: coaxial S/PDIF on RCA and BNC and the optical TOSLINK and ST-Optical. The inputs and outputs are complemented by a digital RCA output. All connectors on the back plate are gold plated and of very high quality. The whole chassis is made from plate steel and aluminum, only the cover of the disc opening is made from acryl. This cover is partially transparent, so it allows watching the rotation of the disc clamped to the motor shaft by a magnetic puck with the company logo on it. The front panel houses in the middle part a splendid two line dot-matrix display. Its main asset for me was readability. Sitting in the listening place I can only see that the display is present in the Bluenote player, and here I could read everything. Depending on the mode the player is in, it gives information about the CD, chosen analog input or the digital input. The remote allows also to choose one of the 4 brightness levels or to switch the display off. Next to the display there are two sets of buttons. The group on the right hand side controls the drive, those on the left hand side control the preamplifier – we can change the volume and the active input. The used drive is the known and admired Philips CD Pro-2. The drive is placed on special decoupling and vibration eliminating elements. The cover is operated manually. The disc is placed directly on the shaft of the motor and clamped with a magnetic puck. The TOC is read directly after closing the cover and it reads it quickly. The drive reads CD-Rs without problems, and I did not try any CD-RWs.

Inside the player we find solid power supply and the servo and main PCBs. The converter is a Burr-Brown 1792 which is supported by S.T.A.R.S. – Solution for Time Abstraction Re-Sampling and is a resampling processor developed by the Swiss company Anagram converting the signal to 24 bits 192 kHz format. The conversion is handled by the DSP Sharc and according to the manufacturer such conversion is completely devoted from clock error. Such conversion is not only done for CDs, but also for all signals coming from the players digital inputs. The output stage, traditionally for this manufacturer, is made based on the miniature tubes Philips JAN 6021W soldered directly in the PCB. Those tubes are of the long life kind, but due to the problematic exchange I would suggest to switch off the player when not in use for a long time. The volume control is based on an integrated analog resistor ladder. All wire connections are made by means of computer tapes, there is no cable salad. All used passive elements are also of high quality.

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