AMR / EMM / PLAYBACK Designs

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.

Suteetat,

With regard to your earlier point, the issue with the SACD and switching inputs appears to be resolved. And you haven't heard anything yet. The upcoming firmware update (just a few small issues left to iron out) takes the XDS1 to another level; it is subtle but significant if your system is resolving enough (and I thought it was impressive when I bought it back in November).

Bar81, thanks for the information, I will let my friend knows since I was at his place a couple of weeks ago, he still did not know about any fix on switching input problem between high rez and SACD. Also, do you know if the new firmware will make XDS1 accept 24/176 and 24/192 input?

I am under the impression that this update is a sound quality enhancement (again, it has been described as "subtle" so owners should temper their expectations, but, in my system, the enhancement was significant) and bug fix. I know that, mechanically, the inputs are capable of 24/192 and I understand that this feature will be enabled in the future but I do not have any more information than that. In any case, given the dearth of music available at that quality imo emm should be commended for focusing on the core sound quality of the player and bug fixes prior to adding checklist features that are currently not particularly useful to the great majority of owners.

I tried the PD in my home with various headphones w/tube & solid state amps as a possible 1-box alternative to my EMM SE separates(CDSD-SE + DCC2-SE). I liked the tonality and ease of the PD, and actually thought the SACD on the PD was, well, perfect. But the PD on redbook lost control of the lower mids, upper bass and vocals and sounded, for lack of a better adjective, squirmy or wormy and kind of hurt my ears. The contrast with the EMM showed the EMM's wonderful control of all sounds, with a balanced presentation that is just plain truthful-- not warm, not edgy, not syrupy, but still liquid, with very solid, well-articulated bass.
EMM just gives the music a great foundation. To repeat, it is very controlled (I think that factor appeared earlier here). The PD highs were a bit sweeter even on badly recorded discs. I think that is why I liked the PD SACD sound just a trifle better than EMM, but not enough to matter much.

So, call me addicted to the EMM take on things.
(I just wish the CDSD transport wasn't so noisy, but it varies with each disc. It's not just my CDSD, I've heard a few. The noise varies from sample to sample.)
But it's worth it to me for that wonderful sound.
I really love EMM...