Is it possible to transform the EMM CDSA SE?


2-box and 1-box versions of EMM's CD players -- not the X upgrade or the XDS1 -- have been variously described as "flat" and "2-dimensional" in forum postings. Is it possible to defy these characterizations and elevate the EMM to the world of amazing 3D sound? Let's share our knowledge and experience -- to make EMM a better sonic world.
sabai
It depends on the recording mostly. Soundstage is excellent. Decent height, width & depth. I wouldn't say world class but I wasn't at the recording to know. I wish there was a touch more detail and a bit more "power" behind the music. I find the CDSAse slightly softens things on CD and poor SACDs. On good SACD's & DSD based recordings I find the sound excellent and worthy of the price.

I do find high res 24/192 via my Prism Orpheus to be equal to the EMM on DSD sourced SACDs.
Dgad, Our systems are very different. My experience with the EMM CDSA SE was similar to yours -- a softening. But with the various improvements I have made the sound is now very resolving and dynamic. The sound stage is scary realistic. I have ICs in series and PCs in series. All my plugs are Oyaide. I am using ERS paper, magnets and crystals. The 3 latter improvements have made a huge difference in the sound.

I have Synergistic Research Acoustic ART on the way as well as SR Galileo universal speaker cells. Later on I may add a Nordost Quantum Qx4. And that will be it.

I am not familiar with the Prism Orpheus.
I have 6 Herbie Tenderfeet under the unit and 3 Brass Pucks on top with a 2" maple plinth on top of them, and I use JPS Digital AC with Running Springs conditioner. I don't know if any of this makes a huge difference, but the player sound plenty good to me.
The object is to get the EMM CDSA SE into the world-class arena. It takes a lot of time and money. The synergy of components, accessories, cables and tweaks in my system has finally got me there. I anticipate further sonic improvement with the addition of the above-noted elements.
You might be right, but it is a sad component that needs that much work to sound SOTA, if the CDSA did not my float my boat for any reason, I would choose the path of simply buying a component that did, without the time and effort you are describing that might or might not get me "there". Fortunately, I happy with the CDSA as is, with some minor vibration control stuff I did - though I'm not sure it really made much difference, but figured it couldn't hurt. As a general rule, it just shouldn't be that hard and prone to tweaking, all major issues should be handled by the manufacturer, and generally are - if they have any experience, which EMM most certainly does.