Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Thank you for the update Matt. I have been following quietly and enjoy the thread and well written humor.

Having owned the Romulus and finding the $2200 Yamamoto dac to be better, I think your session will not last very long.

Another way to say it is the Yamamoto dac with several mods is indeed a contender. No DSD however. No USB so an Offramp is needed with it.

Matt. I am impressed. Well over 18 months ago, and before the birth of this wonderful blog, you approached me about purchasing my EMM DAC2x and I told you what replacing it with...the ODSE! While I personally found the EMM sterile and lifeless, your insight is intriguing. Before I sold the EMM I updated with the newer firmware, I found improvement but not to the level of the ODSE.

After reading Chris Connikar recent review on CA, and trusting your ears I encourage any current EMM Dac2x owner to send their unit back to Calgary and bring your dac to the current HARDWARE, and firmware standard. The unit I sold was an early generation of the 2x. From CA article, EMM has made some significant changes to the DAC2x.

Anyone interested in purchasing one, call Sanjay Patel at Ciamara. He is wonderful to work with.

Matt, and to everyone who contributes to this thread, thank you!

Grannyring, I'm pretty sure you would have felt differently if you used the Aesthetix as a dac only. The built in cd player is not very good. I have compared my Dac to my friends Yamamoto and I agree its good but it is not better.

I will try the Romulus Sig as a DAC, not a spinner. The fact that it spins Is a bonus. The point about impedance mismatches is a very interesting one and makes me think that the Allnic D5000 may have a similar issue. It's all about system synergy in the end.

I have had several tell me the ODSE beat the Emm DAC2X on their evaluation. And the Meitner was much more analytical and sterile then the ODSE. All I can say is that the DAC2X was not sterile; It was clean and natural with aire and an almost ephemeral ability to reproduce the instruments, the vocals and the space between.

My neighbor acquired a Berkeley Ref DAC and the Berk usb to spdif converter. It will be here within a week. I'll report when I can. It should be here the same time that the MSB will be here, and the Emm DAC2X is on a 2-3 week extended audition so I should have all 3 at the same time, along with the Romulus. Wow. That should be a good competition.

Stay tuned.