Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This is a very musical player, especially concidering the 1994 year. It is not very good at retrieving micro details that position musicians in there proper place and provide a 3D soundstage. I think the current crop of CDP's have better information retrieval. The sound is a bit dated but the heart of the music does come through and that is why it is so musical. It can be a bit lean but is very clean w/o hash or harshness. It reminds me of the Linn Karik and Majik 1 bit players. Yes the drawer can be problematic, nothing a bit of grease can't cure, not worth complaining about. Remember this is an older unit at an excellent used price if you are a budget hunter. Ther is one oddity to be aware of, the firmware is old so this player want's to try to read the computer information on enhanced cd's by adding an extra track to the cd and trying to play it, yielding a hideous noise. At this point none of the keys operate except the track back space key. It is unnerving when it happens and it will unravel you. I don't know if the stage 6 solved this issue. All in all it is a musical player for the model year but I can't help but think you will do better with a more current CDP year '99 and newer, especially the 24 multibit players.

Strengths:
Musical

Weaknesses:
Lean w/ average detail for model year

Similar Products Used:
Linn Karik III, Rotel RCD 975, and Jolida JD 100 CDP's. Used with AE3 DJH tube pre, Linn Klout power, Homegrown speakers similar the Monitor audio silver series.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I would ignore the xenophobic comments regarding this player,because this type of comments could make you miss a exellent and rewarding second hand buy.My Micromega has had no problems at all and it is now in its 8th year!!!.It started as a stage 1,it blew into the weeds the marantz cd63se,which was all the rage at the time,the sound was a massive improvement,power,musicality,were there in spades.I then changed it to a stage 2,I only noticed a slight gain in improvements with this upgrade.I then converted the stage 2 into the drive transport,DAC combo.WOW!!! was I knocked out of the ability of this combo,at last cd was beginning to sound respectable.The scale of the player was imense,vocals dead bang in the centre, when you could here all the expressiveness in the voices the emotion the singer was singing with,the soundstage took on a extra dimension,in width,it was stunning,you could listen for hours as the player is smooth warm and nonfatiging,it simply played the tunes full of emotion with a analouge feel.
The treble is very smooth and refined,doesnt leave your teeth on edge or the local canine population barking,the midrange is so naural,inviting and excels at vocal reproduction,the bass is deep and times well.
I have used this combo with Audiolab amps,and copland,and the sound still impresses,and even today it takes alot of searching to find a better sounding cd player,so to get one cheap as chips on the second hand market makes it a real bargin.

Strengths:
powerful,sweet,non fatiging,great looks minamilist.

Weaknesses:
open/close button has got tempermental after 8 years

Similar Products Used:
marantz cd63,cd63se,rotel 970.

Price Paid:  $350.00 from eBay

Summary:
I purchased the Stage 3 as an upgrade to the Micromega Juniour I was using. I loved (and still do) the Junior and felt that a newer, higher level MM would be a great improvement. In consideration of how little I paid for the Stage 3 I cannot say I am disappointed, but it certainly does not represent a big improvement over the Junior. It is a fine CD player in the Micromega tradition: warm, musical, and very easy to listen to, I just find it a bit too warm and would prefer a little more treble, but maybe that's just me.

Strengths:
Great sounding, very analog and accurate. Musical with no hint of harshness at all.

Weaknesses:
Too warm for my taste and I have the classic transport grease drying up problem.

Similar Products Used:
Sony CDP-270, Micromega Junior

Price Paid:  $1500.00

Summary:
It seems fairly well known that these micromega players have transport problems related to the lubricant drying out. Because of this these players are seriously cheap and a great deal on the used market.

Well, lubricating the transport is fairly easy. Requires a T10 torx bit and some synthetic lubricant (silicon, lithium). Instructions can be found here:
http://sites.ecosse.net/chunky/frames/micromega.htm

The good thing is that these micromega players are quite excepetional sounding. After futily trying to find an SACD player that sounds good on CD's, I am going to keep this around just for CD playback. It's affordable enough that I don't have to choose between an SACD player with average CD performance or a good CD player with no SACD. For example, the stage 2 is certainly better at CD than the Sony s9000es.

Strengths:
Musical, liquid and natural sounding, vinyl-like, smooth, excels at imaging and soundstage depth/width. Not hyper-detailed or forward/bright (which some people may prefer,but I do not).

Weaknesses:
Reliability, but lubrication not that difficult. Lacks the last bit of treble air.

Similar Products Used:
Cal Icon mkII, Cal Alpha/Delta, Sony dvp s9000es, Marantz CD17, myryad, wadia, simaudio

Price Paid:  $300.00 from EBAY

Summary:
This is a stunning CD player, the more I use it the better it sounds. It is one of the few CD players that does not sound harsh. It also looks fantastic. These are tremendous buys on the used market.

Strengths:
Great sound and fantastic looks.

Weaknesses:
None.

Similar Products Used:
I have a McIntosh and 3 Rotels and none of them come close to this player.