The current SOTA SACD player

" that is just my particular viewpoint of how i think a manufacturer should conduct themselves"

That was precisely my reasoning when I first made my comments in this thread

Ok , fair enough. I consider all of this constructive criticism and appreciate the efforts to help aleviate any concerns of misdirected intent on the part of Alex Peychev. Audiogon forum ethical guidelines as well as professional business conduct is critical to the operation of the site as well as the reputation of those involved . I think that this should be a priority when posting on this or any forum .
I am diligent in my efforts to make changes and improve the operation of APL Hi Fi . This Mission Statement I am in the process of implementing takes time . I am working very hard to secure these improvements. Personally , I welcome any and all suggestions . This is a small community and we need each other to survive the many frightning technologies that lurk around the corner threatning to put the high end audio community out of business. Please allow me the opportunity to follow through with my objectives and improve all aspects of the business. Brent Rainwater CSM APL Hi FI

Well done Brent!

Hi Jonathan, Brent, Mike, Grant and Alex.
All the above I know personally and consider friends with a common interest in high end audio. I don't want to belabor this but would like to comment on it.
I think Ecka's comment above is well put and I'd like to add that in the early days of consumer EMM SACD players (not too long ago), the Philips 1000 was modded by EMM and used as the transport as a temporary solution until their own transport was ready. We all know what happened. They went dead and couldn't be fixed. Alex to the resue! Not only did he identify the problem, but he was the only one in the WORLD that could fix it. I know, he fixed two different units for me after I was told that they could't be fixed. He's really a brilliant engineer but has such a high passion for audio that maybe we should lock him in a closet for awhile :-). Anyway, because of the Philips problem Alex came into contact with many EMM owners. I referred several myself. That association along with EMM considered the worlds best by many set a goal for Alex to shoot for so I can understand his interaction with EMM owners.
Thanks to people like Ed, Andreas, Alex and others, we as audiophiles are reaping the benefits. Digital is getting better all the time and I would like to encourage them all to KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Frank

Ecka
I have the same EMM combo like yours, and also dCS and also Zanden and a few others ; to briefly answer your question , I bought what is called APL 2.5 ( the TEAC UX1 ltd heavily modified by Alex ) and in my system ( ALE compression drivers) , my room ( acoustically treated to match my equipment and my type of music) , and to my ears (and several others , known for theirs') it was better than the rest, simply more natural in recreating the original magic illusion , a special blend of smoothness and detail.
Certainly Alex is not an easy or average character , but assasinating his won't help the quest for better sound, with the possible exception of pampering some ego larger than ...well, pardon my French, private parts of some individuals
Having said that, EMM and the others mentioned are fantastic machines as well, and I couldn't listen so far to the Signature version which has rave reviews.