Electrocompaniet EMC II CD Player

Fascinating, Cello. I know it's all relative, but $350 for a $25 product still hits the other side of my brain too hard!
That you're running single-ended instead of taking advantage of the balanced operation is also certainly a factor not easy to dismiss, as the consensus internationally is that balanced running provides more than just the +6dB headroom. There's a 240v orig EMC-1 that started on eBay yesterday, from Denmark (let's not get that started again!), up to $1525. Interesting to see what it does, as current 24/192 power-supply modded new units can be had in the what, low $3k?....
My EMC-1 SE UP or whatever it's called now runs balanced SPMs to an Aleph P, sitting atop a Neuance Beta. Can't imagine a more exquisite stage or natural detail. (My DIY $39 PC helped the rez-focus a bit too.)
Jawdrops frequently preclude my bothering to single-blind system adjustments, too. After all, it's about musical pleasure and life is getting shorter. Nonetheless the ugly reality of expectation bias rears its head. So I'll chase one of these, but only if it's cheaper. Ha!

Maybe Brother Mike from F&S would work a deal if a number of us jumped on board for a group purchase???

Maybe ;-)

...Mike - Father & Son Audio

I'm interested.

Subaruguru, I would start chasing a Spider now. I did not include in my post that the Spider is milled steel (looks like it took some extra work to get it done and then some). It is well beyond a $ 25.00 disc.

I also did not stress that the music has become a good bit more emotionally involving. That sense has been reinforced over the last couple of days.

I am anxious to hear if anyone else gets a Spider and they get the same types of improvement in their system (or not).

IMHO this piece is a deal at the $ 350.00 for what it has done for my system.