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EMM Labs CDSD / DCC2 - Initial Listening Session

With only 48 hours of burn-in on these pieces, this review is hardly definitive- but here goes...

I think old Ed (Meitner) has hit the cover off the ball with this, his latest offering in CD/SACD playback equipment. The following comments are based on comparisons to my previous front-end: Meitnerized Philips SACD 1000, Meitner DAC6, Meitner Switchman II and apply to both SACD & CD playback.

The CDSD & DCC2 - compared to the previous Meitner rig---

-Much deeper soundstage, much more layered, as well, width about the same.
-Hall ambiance retrieval is vastly superior.
-Tonal and timbral qualities are unsurpassed in any digital gear I've experienced. Piano reproduction is absolutely stunningly good!! Acoustic guitar has the string interaction/wooden resonance of the real thing.
-There is a "Bloom" to instuments, even voice, that seems typically absent in digital playback. This quality is very "Analog" like.
-So far, I sense not even a suggestion of stridency or digital fatigue- It is just not there. This new gear is just plain musical. That word is overused- but there is no other word to better describe the overall experience. There is a natural seamlessness and natural bloom to the music, as a whole, which reminds me of a live performance within a live venue. All of the elements of that live experience seem reproduced faithfully by the CDSD & DCC2. This is no small feat. In quantitative terms I'd say the new gear is 25%-35% better, in every listening category (it is about the same in soudstage width), than the earlier 3 piece set-up I had.

As the new gear continues to burn-in there will certainly be changes and refinements, probably for the better, which I will try to keep track of. But so far- Ooh, La, La!!!

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT:
Kharma Midi Grand
Tenor 300 HP
Jena Labs Pathfinder
Shunyata Anaconda VX & VX Alpha
fbhifi
jjwa
69 posts
 
Drhst20....I'm running my DCC2 through a "standard transport" via the TOSLINK connection as I await the CDSD.

Thanks for the reassurance..... I can hardly wait.

Right now I'm experimenting with using my NAGRA PL-L preamp and bypassing the DCC2 preamp.......it really, really opens up the sound! but I would like to wait until the DCC2 breaks in before passing final judgement. I read here on the ...GON that it takes 500 hrs. Does anyone know if that is 500 hrs PLAY TIME or just 500 hrs PLUGED in?
mes
386 posts
 
Drhst20 is correct, if you haven't heard the DCC2 ( or DAC 6e for that matter) with the CDSD, you've not heard the this combnation is capable of. As good as the modded Phillips was as a transport, it pales in comparison to the CDSD. The difference is startling. And Jjwa, neither play time nor plugged in. Pilates.
nikki
57 posts
 
Just leave it turned on all the time. It is true that the DCC2 requires a long break-in period as well as warm up period, so I never turn it off unless I'm away from home for an extended period. The CDSD seems to stay on, even when on standby, unlike the DCC2 which just shuts down.

The magic isn't there until you mate it with the CDSD, not to my ears anyways.
guidocorona
4,114 posts
 
Have any of you guys done some comparative listening of the EMM combo with the Teac Esoteric X-01? Have not listened to EMM yet, but have listened both to X-01 and to the Esoteric P70/D70 combo, and found both astonishingly good.
guidocorona
4,114 posts
 
In the meantime, my own findings on X-01 are in the following thread:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1090867688&read&keyw&zzemm
The thread also contains an excellent discussion by MGOTTLIEB, who appears to give the preference to X-01 in his comparison with EMM, and has since purchased the Esoteric unit. For redbook at least, he uses it mostly as a transport, augmented by DCS Elgar + Purcell.
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