I dit not buy a Micromega Stage 4, but borrowed one from my brother. It sound is OK, but I regconize some problems mentioned in many articles. Sometimes the drawer doesn't open or the CD inside has not been detected. That were the problems during a couple of months. For the rest I am satisfied about the detail, dynamics and stage.

To my ears, the Stage serie from Micromega plays music with a heart.It's not for hard rockers, but it's a sweet, delightful and yet detailed sound
that's highly musical and suits classical, jazz and ambient music especially well. It's about the sum of the parts, rather than the parts. A musical wholeness that's captivating. Stage 5 is perhaps the best buy in the range.

* About the discussion about Micromega having bad quality:
I have a Micromega Junior since four years. Excellent sound and very reliable.
Sensitive to dirty discs and dust on the laser lens. Works perfectly after an easy clean. Not the best error correction, but the music it plays - boy, it's wonderful. Would love to upgrade to a Stage.

Yes!! I have been conned too.
I have the same problem as described, my Stage 1 basically a useless
piece of junk, I can't get it serviced properly as the dealers in Singapore
keep changing and each new dealer refuses to service equipment sold by the
previous dealer. The dealers simply would not admit that there is a manufacturing defect and tell me that I have a weak laser or that it is an alignment problem due to rough handling.

MICROMEGA PRODUCTS ARE A WASTE OF MONEY!!!

Just thought i would put in my two cents worth...I've changed my aging Rotel 965bx for a second hand Stage 1. It didn't take days of listening to hear the significant improvement this brought to my setup. It is presently feeding an Audiolab 8000a through Cardas interconnects and the synergy is defenitely there. These are hooked up to a pair of (old) Elipson 1402 (yes they are also of French origins...) and things are singing!

This player is definitely smoother and more transparent than my old Rotel. It is detailed and casts quite an acceptable soundstage (or illusion of it). Of course the control panel is idiosincratic and doesn't always respond on the dime, but that's a small price to pay to get that great sound, no matter what type of music you slide into the drawer (classical being very enjoyable thank you).

As for inherent reliability problems, yes there is an issue, but nothing that a respectable (read competent) technician cannot fix indefinitly. Mine was fixed a while back and hasn't showed any signs of giving up (it hardly even skips - even with veterant CDs).

For my taste, so good is the sound of this player that I will have it upgraded to Stage 5 status as soon as I have the chance (2 and 3 are discontinued). This upgrade transforms the sound quality of this player to something that most other manufacturer can only dream about (in similar price range). Even in its stage1 guise, this player's sheer musicality beats almost any players with HIPE status. It's just too bad that Brit Mags don't review more French electronics, cause these babies would definitely be up there with and above the rest!

Can't wait to replace my elipson with Cabasse 400s (yes FRENCH again!)

Had all the probs everyone talks about,till I sent it to Magnum Dynalab for upgrading.Since then (well over a year) it has been flawless(knock on wood).I beleive they dropped the line very quickly because of so many repair requests.The drawer opens and closes way too fast,but this thing is very refined sounding,and is better than my Rotel rcd970.It really looks quite nice,and because I was able to get mine to the fab. folks at Magnum,I have to give it 4 stars,

I have had my stage 1 for 5 years and it kicks ass :-)For the money its worth 5 stars
It is better than my friends new Marantz that costs more than I paid for the MM
I will upgrade it to a Stage 5 , when my taxrefund comes ... :-)

big Sound, detail, sheer musicality

Ergonomics, especially on the player

I started with a Stage 1 in 1995. This exhibited some of the problem outlined in the more scathing criticisms here. It would not play some discs, period. The sound was adequate. I upgraded to Stage 2, in fact Micromega completely changed my machine. In the first year of production they addressed some of the reliability problems.

A year or so later I updated the spec to Stage 6. This level is really sweet. It's fine sounding player, and I've never had the slightest reliability problem with it, and it's been in use now for 3 to 4 years.

It'll even make you forget the odd scratch and pop on some historic recordings, it goes straight to the heart of the music.

Similar Products Used:

none

Sound , Sound , Sound .

Non for the price

I bought a Micromega CD Player and Amplifier of the Minium sereis one year a go and found them stupendous combination at a very reasonable price , I do not understand this storm against this brand , it is sure that bad versions of Philips transport have caused the problems discussed , but it is Philips not Micromega , each brand has its difficulties in some periods , now Micromega has come with a slim very cute line of CD , DVD , amps , and processors etc that are reilable and above all extremely musical , check them out at your nearest dealer and you will notice what I am speaking about .

Similar Products Used:

Marantz , Arcam

Hi !I've just read comments about Micromega's products.
I've bought Micromega Stage 5 three months ago. I have no problem with
this CD player - sound is clear, stereo stage wonderful, dynamic very fine.
All troubles with stages seem strange to me - it works very fine, without
skipping and so on ... The only minus is remote controller -
from Minium series ... So i'm very satisfied because off buying this cd.

After reading the bad reports on the Micromega CD players I will make the following comments:
I purchased a stage 1 two years ago and yes it did start skipping tracks and error messages did appear after about 2 months of use. I had this corrected when the grease was replaced in the phillips CDM 12.4 unit. Yes they used the wrong grease, that dried out. Get this done as a first step in fixing the tracking problem.

After having this done I have had no problems with cd's except for poor quality cd's themselves. Since then I have upgraded to the stage 6 and have had no problems over the past 12 months. Mind you the service provided by the importer in Sydney, Australia was nothing short of shoddy. I went direct to Micromega in France and talked to Daniel Schar who sent me the upgrade. It was just a matter of plug and play to upgrade the unit.

As for the sound, excellent for it's price and the upgrade to stage 6 made it very goods value compared to other similar priced/sound quality cd's I heard.