Totally agree with Arthurs report. I have a Micromega Stage 2 - it stopped recognising that it had a Cd inserted after a couple of weeks. In Hong Kong you don't return faulty products to the shops, you have to take them to the repair service centre (which was hours away!).
Problem was fixed, now it jups like the blazes and I have to pay to get it repaired each time. Don't buy a Micromega - sound is musical but lacks punch detail and focus compaired to other similarly priced products which are much more reliable. My friend has a cheaper Marantz CD63SE - it knocks spots of the Micromega in every way.

If someone from Micromega reads this: I will tell every friend, relative, aquaintance, colleague, etc, just how bad your products are until you refund my money. French companies should stick to making wine and selling onions!!!

One star is ten too many

Sound, great looks

Falls to bits

I bought a stage one (good) in 1995 & upgraded via a stage 2 (sounded horrible) to a stage 3 later the same year. Directly following the change from stage 2 to 3 at the dealers it started to belch out smoke. A replacement stage 3 was supplied.
I am very happy with the sound from this unit and it was very reliable, playing discs other machines would not without skipping. Recently however it has started to skip etc. There is no UK importer at present (no-one dumb enough I should think) and Micromega themselves have no internet prescence, no wonder reading the previous messages on this board.

The dealer who sold it to me said the problem would not be the well known dried grease scenario as all machines after s/n 3000 were unaffected, mine is s/n 3437. They no longer sell MIcromega.

Having read some of the messages on this board it was clear that after sales was non existant. I decided to fix it myself as I felt I had little to lose.
Firstly I tried Mr. Vikings (below) idea that it would magically recalibrate itself if switched off & on. This may have worked on his stage 6 but not my 3. I have no mention of this fascility in my handbook either.
I opened the case & removed the transport, Oh, what a suprise: Dried up grease. Cleaned & lightly regreased with silicone grease & reassemble (30 minute job). Early days but I've had no further skipping trouble. I also feel it sounds better, more open. Am I imagining it or has the error control got less work to do.

In short a fabulous looking, great sounding, shoddily made piece of French cr*p.


Would I buy another Micromega product? Are you mad?

PS. no problem playing CDR's

Lightflowing beatuful sound

I have had my Stage 3 for five years now and I must say I will not switch to anything other. I am very pleased with it (well not really with the mechanics perhaps).

The sound is so lyrical and airy and it has a certain light softness that sound good with all kind of music. I is always easy to follow the melodies.

Just one thing - do not put the power plug in the same phase as the amplifier. I have a 10 metre power chord from an adjacent room to mine. The different in sound is huge. I think it has to do with that the CD player send out digital noise via the power chord, that must not reach the amplifier.

Excellent Listenability. Closest sound comparable to a good turntable I have found for the price. Musical.

Problems with mis-tracking and occasional track access. Hopefully overcome if player returned for overhaul.

This is further to my review of 15 March 2000, when I had just received my player back after being upgraded from a Stage 1 to a Stage 3. At first I was all at sea due to what I conceived to be an over-powering bass. I adjusted my speaker positions a little and after some hours of listening began to realise that I was hearing bass which should have been there but was missing from my Stage 1. After a couple of weeks of listening to the upgraded Stage 3 I can only report that the performance is AWESOME. At the top end, cymbals are now crystal clear and you can hear the different sounds which different cymbals in the drum kit make. At the bottom end, bass is solid and tight - bass lines are easy to follow (both electric and acoustic) and the bass drum, tom-toms etc are excellent. Voices are now more detailed and I can hear the nuances in the vocal presentation. The whole sound is very musical - I find I am not listening to a CD player and analysing the music - I am listening to the music itself, getting lost in the sounds and find I am constantly tapping my foot to the rhythm - a sign of good reproduction. Piano too is excellent and realistic - piano is a good test of any system and the Micromega Stage 3 reproduces piano excellently. All in all, I am very impressed with the upgrade and think you would have to spend 2 or 3 times as much on a different player to get this sort of sound. The upgrade was well worth the investment! I am confident that I will be quite happy with this player for some time to come now providing I have no recurrence of the tracking problems I experienced prior to its overhaul and upgrade.

A DVD player with true audiofile sound & a picture better than the Denon DVD 3300 series.

My version has a damn Y/C digital board with only a s-vhs out (of which my TV does not have the 'in') and a standard cable out + it has a verry loud drive unit (philips 960 type)

For al how would love the change to get in direct contact with Micromega (for good or bad), see below:


Mr Sébastien SCHAER Export Manager.
Micromega S.A.
email: sebastien.schar@wanadoo.fr

I own a Micromega Premium DVD. I bought it as an ex-demo with a major discount on it (original price was $1800, paid only $650,-)+ still a two year guarantee. So far, so good.
Took it home, hooked it up, put it on and I was as happy as a baby. Close to perfect picture and a sound, as sweet and perfect as any respectable $1000,- + cd player. so far, still good.

However, since it has a first generation Philips drive, the unit was very loud. I tracked down the above e-mail address (only took me about half a year) and contacted Micromega, sent the unit to France, paid +/- 400 Dollars and got a complete new generation drive. Dead quiet, DTS compatible;, CD-R read back, faster and a better picture.

What more do you want, apart from the fact that the $@#%^$ should have not charged me extra for the new drive.



M. Goldfinger


My system:
Infinity Overture 3
LUXMAN RV387 reciever
Monster Z2 speaker cable
van den Hull The First Ultimate (digital) interlinks

Similar Products Used:

Nada

Just found this page and was confused about the low ratings for the Micromega cd players. I own a stage 1 and have been using it almost every day for about 5 years. Never any problems even with bad (scratched) cd´s. cdr´s works fine too... More than happy with the sound quality, etc.... Is the problem perhaps only with the upgraded players? or am i just lucky??? would like to here about other stage 1 owners how there´s work...

I used to own a stage 2. After less than a year I encountered the skipping problem. I went back to the dealer Soundworks in Kensington, Maryland who provided me with a cheap NAD while my unit was being repaired. Three months later they told me that my player was lost (!). They apologized and promised to replace it with a new stage 5 as stage 2 was by then discontinued. This never happened. Later on they were offering to sell me at a discount a stage 6 or give me a free a demo stage 5 that they would locate somewhere in the continental US. I would stay away from micromega and Soundworks in the future.

Musicality, good value, looks

Remote, mechanism.

I have used this CD for many years. It sounds great for the price and is also quite neat looking. I wish it had better mechanism and remote. I hate the remote! I also had to open the unit and remove the dried vaseline from the mechanism since it made it whine loud! After the 'oiling' it has performed perfectly in every way (mail me if encountered the problem, easy to fix). 4 years of use. NO skipping, ever! No break downs. No problemo what so ever. Plays all the cds I give it. I guess I am the lucky one of the owners then!

This review is a bit too negative for this player. It is a great piece of kit when it comes down to sound. They just could have done better with the mechanical aspects.

What else can I say. I have been very happy with it's sound and since I have not encountered any problems either I can't complain for much. Just shoot the man who though designed this ergonomic miracle they use as remote.

I have had a Stage 1 player since 1995. I have been very happy with the sound, which I find clean and very spatial - very easy to listen to. I too have had problems with tracking but sent it away to our importer and that problem has been fixed. At the same time I had my player upgraded to Stage 3 and eagerly awaited it's return. However, when I played it I was a little disappointed. There was tons more signal and plenty more base, but I have seemed to have lost the clean and spatial sound I had with the Stage 1 - it now sounds cluttered and the music lumbers along. I find I am not enjoying my favourite CD's anywhere near as much. Has anyone had the same experience?

After reading most of the review's im wondering... have any of you read the manual? The Micromega cd-players offer an unique system on error correction. This system tune the components and adjust's the laser pick-up for best preformens. The system is Superb if you do it right! When you switch off the power and turn it on the tweeking system kick's in. How many of you do this with a cd inside? If you do it with a cd inside you will get problems like track jumping, problems with no disc, strange sound and so on. If you calibrate WITHOUT a cd inside you will get NO problems. Trust me.. i've got the "same problems" as you until i removed the cd and "adjusted it" My Stage 6 is giving me a superb satisfaction!

Yours, Frode