DACs: Burmester vs. Meitner vs. dcs

out of the above, i have only auditioned the dCS stack. I didn't think that the dCS compared favorably to the Boulder 2020 Advance, using the dCS Verdi transport. The Boulder had a far more natural sound, and was every bit as detailed.

To the above we might as well add the Zanden and the Audio Note 4.1x Balanced (we carry Audio Note).

I agree with mikeL that one can tell quite a bit about equipment at shows, especially in excellent sounding systems (one can hear deep into a system a lot more if one's ears do not have to shut down as a result of some nasty noises the system shouldn't be producing).

However, evaluating equipment is like evaluating a marriage partner: they may look and sound good, be entertaining, seem to have lots of depth, and so forth, but it is only after living with them do you really know what they are like. an even then, the system environment has a huge impact on how they will perform.

My point (yes, finally getting to it now...) is that these are all good DACs, I have heard all of them sound exemplary at sometime in the past in one or more specific systems (except the Goldmund DAC, we have only heard their single box player). All of them will sound great in just about any great system - the system will not have to be crippled in order to make the digital sound palatable. It really comes down to flavors, technology, features and cost.

Does the DAC strive for massive amounts of delicately rendered detail? Does it strive for an analogue sound? a natural sound? a pure sound? Does it emphasize bass? dynamic swings? continuousness? Each DAC seems to have a different purpose which seems to be a mixture of one or more of these flavors.

Does it use vacuum tubes? Does it have a variable output stage that can connect directly to an amp? If so does it have inputs in order to function as a full-featured linestage? Does it support SACD? Does it have lots of options to tweak the sound? Does it try to deal with vibration control or is it completely up to you to use external tweaks? Is it upgradable (and do you care)?

Does it have a associated transport that has been optimized to mate with the DAC? Does it look cool? :-)

OK, never mind, they ALL look cool :-)

Enjoy!
-Mike.

I have a good friend who has the means to own anything and pretty much has over the last few years. He has owned the Meitner and Phillips combo but recently sold it after hearing the new Teac Esoteric 70 series in a very resolving system in which they were side by side. He was also able to hear the new UX1 which will be released soon for sale and will obtain that for SACD although he also preferred the Exemplar/ Denon player for SACD. He has owned, Zanden, Weiss, Burmester, DCS, Ensemble, and Levinson and several "custom built units". He feels that the Esoterics are the only ones that approach his superb vinyl set up although at a price. I have to mention my bias since I own the Exemplar and would love to have the Teacs.

There's so much hype about EMM labs that I have get my two cets in here. I live in Seattle, Blue Light Audio is in Portland (EMM's distributor) and I have heard the EMM labs gear in several systems for extended periods. I don't think the EMM labs is clearly superior. It's great, but you have to talk about it in context. I've heard the Burmester 001 run direct to an amp and it was fantastic. Sounded as good on cd as the EMM labs did on SACD. And that sold on Audiogon last week for $8000 total. Put an active pre-amp in there and I bet the Burmester would get sloppy. I am selling(my axe to grind) a DCS Delius/Purcell combo that I ran directly into my aleph 1.2.
I can't afford to keep it anymore...but that system run directly into the right amp sounds better than the EMM labs gear did on cd. I believe this is because with EMM you need a pre-amp. I heard the EMM labs DAC 6 with the big BAT pre-amp. That's $3000-$5000 more in a set up that already sells for $8000 used. With DCS or a modified Wadia 861 etc. you can have impeccable cd playback for under $6000.00 total on the used market. I think Meitner sees this and that is why they are coming out with the DCC 2 which gives you a built in pre-amp which is actually the output of the dac instead of having a dac out-put routed to a pre-amp circuit. There I feel better.

sm2727, i also live in Seattle.....own the EMM labs gear.....and use into my Placette passive. i have had the dCS gear in my room and to my ears the Meitner simply goes to another level (the dCS running nude and the Meitner into the Placette). the BAT VK-51SE (which i have had in my room) will restrict ultimate performance with the EMM labs gear compared to the Placette (and the Placette is $1000 retail).

the Burmester has outstanding Redbook performance.....and i have only heard the 001 once.....but i have heard the top Burmeister combo a few times. the Burmeister does equal the EMM labs in detail.....but the EMM labs goes to another level of filling the soundstage and really openning up the music compared to my perception of the big Burmeister. also, the way in which the 16/44 is upconverted to dsd on the EMM labs gives redbook a much more 'non digital' feel compared to the Burmeister. the firewire interface on the dCS combo is inherently full of jitter and results in a certain 'digital' feel here too. i am splitting hairs here a little but at these perfomance heights those little hairs are important.

any of this gear is excellent.....but there is no doubt that the EMM labs is at least equal to these others on redbook and absolutely smokes anything on sacd. and it is cheap to run the EMM labs thru the Placette passive to get all the performance any digital meduim is currently capable of.