I am looking to replace my Berkeley DAC with something that will also handle SACD. So far I had a well broken in XDS1 in my system for a little over a week and I was a bit disappointed. Hopefully in the next week or two, I should have PD MPS-5 to try. XDS1 looks much better than the pictures in most magazine. However, I find it to be an unfinished product as it still has some bugs that has not been taken care of yet, although I understand that EMM knows about the problem and still tries to fix it.
I forgot exactly what it was now but I remembered getting some distortion sound coming out of the unit either when sampling rate was changed from 44.1 to 88 or when switched source from digital input (from my music server) to SACD player or something like that. The only way to get rid of the distortion was to turn off and on again. For product this price, I expected everything to be functioning perfectly. Also AES/EBU digital input supporting on 24/96 is a bit lame and EMM is delaying its upgrade to support 24/192 for awhile now. Anyhow, beside that sonically, it was a mixed bag for me. In my system, Berkeley has fuller, richer and warmer midrange. EMM has greater extension at both ends, better speed but for my taste, sounded too lean. I use all Synergistic cables (Tesla Apex) in my system with T3 power cords for Berkeley and EMM. I also tried Nordost Valhalla IC for a littel while with EMM.
I think XDS1 did many things better than Berkeley but in the end, I find Berkeley easier to listen to for extended period, more musical although may be less neutral or accurate than EMM but happen to be the way I prefer to listen to music. Let see if PD MPS-5 will suit me better.
It was strange listening to SACD on EMM though. I found the difference between SACD and CD layer was less than when I heard the same disk with Esoteric D-05 that I used to have.
