AMR / EMM / PLAYBACK Designs

Its sounds to me that the Ayon CD5 would be better than the Play Back Design if you want that warmth, but the Ayon may be more open.

I changed my mind a bit about EMM. The other day, I spent several hours listening to XDS1 in my friend's system with top of the line T&A active speaker, McIntosh preamp (can't remember which one). The first couple of hours, using Kubala Sosna Elation power cord, I still was not impressed. The sound on many tracks was thin, piano was very clear but too light weight for my taste. However, when it Elation cord was replaced with Elrod Gold Statment, it sounded much much better. I don't think that Elation was a bad cable but may be it just did not match well with EMM. Perhaps the same could be say of Synergistic Research Tesla T3 cord that I used with EMM. Unfortunately EMM is already a stretched for my budget, throw Elrod on top of that, it is not healthy for my bank account so I think I'll stick with Playback for now.

There is no need for all that. The VH Audio Airsine with Oyaide P-004/C-004 is fantastic with the XDS1 and it is nowhere near the Elrod's price point.

Please note that the XDS1 comes with a very nice upgraded power cord from Kimber. This is not ultimately what you will want to use but may be satisfactory in the short run. Power cords are easy to change, SACd players much harder.

Bar81, I did not mean to imply that EMM only works well with incredibly expensive power cord.
It kind of surprise me though. Usually, even with stock cables, I expect a unit to work ok and give a reasonable performance. Better matched cable certainly should elevate the performance. However in EMM case, it seems like wrong cable can significantly deteriorate the sound quite a bit.
I never listened to it with stocked Kimber cable however.
My friend is now reporting also good result with Stealth Dream and he will compare Stealth to Elrod again before he make his decision on power cord.