yesterday i had 5 guys visit for a fun listening session. although we need no excuse for a session at the audio barn one curiosity was how the new EMM Labs Signature Edition DAC6e and CDSD would compare to the David Schulte (The Upgrade Company) unpgraded Reimyo CDP-777. the Reimyo was one player i had heard that i liked and wondered how redbook on the EMM would compare.
David Schulte himself had flown in from Detroit as well as Max (an Absolute Sound reviewer from Albuquerque) my friend Cyrus and his friend Jeff from Spokane. another happy David Schulte customer Bill lives here in Western Washington also attended. Bill also brought a David Schulte modified Theta Compli Universal player to add to the mix.
any session at the barn typically gets dominated by vinyl and this one was no different. vinyl basically kicks ass.
but before and after the vinyl we did listen to the various digital players. Bill had brought his Grand Prix rack (exactly like mine) and i had enough Jena Labs power cords that we were able to have each player on exactly the same rack and use the same power cord. Bill also brought a 2 meter balanced set of Transparent Opus interconnect which we compared to my Valhalla balanced......we preferred the Opus (no surprise there) so that is what we used for the EMM-Reimyo comparison. as the Compli has no balanced output Bill brought a set of Transparent MM Ref RCA interconnects for that (my experience is that it is very close to the Opus and i know from past experience that i prefer the MM to my Valhalla).
we first listened to the EMM and then the Reimyo. David Schulte was first to speak up; he commented that the EMM was quite a bit better. for a modder to immediately conceed that a product betters his 'baby' showed a lot of class. other comments were basically along those lines. as i never sat in the sweet spot during the EMM-Reimyo comparison my comments are somewhat tempered.
what i heard was that the EMM Labs was a good deal more detailed and refined. you heard farther into the music. there was an ease and relaxed presentation that the Reimyo could not match. OTOH the Reimyo was an outstanding digital player and if we did not have the EMM there would have been no sense of anything missing.
Bill (who had not heard my system for almost 6 months) commented that the new EMM Labs Signature Edition had got closer to my vinyl.....which i agree with.
all this was with redbook.
we did then listen to the Theta Compli which did itself proud. when you consider the Compli is a $3000 list price player with a $1000 mod; and we are comparing it to a $12,000 player with a (???) $3500 mod and a $23,000 digital combo.......the Compli sounded great. yes; it was not as detailed or as refined......but it was very natural and non-digital sounding without any tubed output stage that robs the immediacy and vividness of the music.
if the modded Reimyo represents SOTA of redbook players the EMM Labs Signature Edition simply leaps beyond SOTA redbook to another level.
our session went from about 2pm to about 9pm with lots of vinyl, a bit of single-malt (Lagavulin 16 year old), and just the enjoyment of the company of other music lovers.
David Schulte himself had flown in from Detroit as well as Max (an Absolute Sound reviewer from Albuquerque) my friend Cyrus and his friend Jeff from Spokane. another happy David Schulte customer Bill lives here in Western Washington also attended. Bill also brought a David Schulte modified Theta Compli Universal player to add to the mix.
any session at the barn typically gets dominated by vinyl and this one was no different. vinyl basically kicks ass.
but before and after the vinyl we did listen to the various digital players. Bill had brought his Grand Prix rack (exactly like mine) and i had enough Jena Labs power cords that we were able to have each player on exactly the same rack and use the same power cord. Bill also brought a 2 meter balanced set of Transparent Opus interconnect which we compared to my Valhalla balanced......we preferred the Opus (no surprise there) so that is what we used for the EMM-Reimyo comparison. as the Compli has no balanced output Bill brought a set of Transparent MM Ref RCA interconnects for that (my experience is that it is very close to the Opus and i know from past experience that i prefer the MM to my Valhalla).
we first listened to the EMM and then the Reimyo. David Schulte was first to speak up; he commented that the EMM was quite a bit better. for a modder to immediately conceed that a product betters his 'baby' showed a lot of class. other comments were basically along those lines. as i never sat in the sweet spot during the EMM-Reimyo comparison my comments are somewhat tempered.
what i heard was that the EMM Labs was a good deal more detailed and refined. you heard farther into the music. there was an ease and relaxed presentation that the Reimyo could not match. OTOH the Reimyo was an outstanding digital player and if we did not have the EMM there would have been no sense of anything missing.
Bill (who had not heard my system for almost 6 months) commented that the new EMM Labs Signature Edition had got closer to my vinyl.....which i agree with.
all this was with redbook.
we did then listen to the Theta Compli which did itself proud. when you consider the Compli is a $3000 list price player with a $1000 mod; and we are comparing it to a $12,000 player with a (???) $3500 mod and a $23,000 digital combo.......the Compli sounded great. yes; it was not as detailed or as refined......but it was very natural and non-digital sounding without any tubed output stage that robs the immediacy and vividness of the music.
if the modded Reimyo represents SOTA of redbook players the EMM Labs Signature Edition simply leaps beyond SOTA redbook to another level.
our session went from about 2pm to about 9pm with lots of vinyl, a bit of single-malt (Lagavulin 16 year old), and just the enjoyment of the company of other music lovers.