Electrocompaniet EMC II CD Player

Subaruguru, 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 does look more significant than a $ 25.00 disc or something you could crank out at home. 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, the Spider is much more than a tweak and more like a system upgrade. I feel that the sound improvements we heard make this a deal at the $399.00 price for what it has done for my system. If you see a few more reactions similar to mine, I would not count on seeing one on the used market anytime soon.

Return on the investment question...I'd love to know which offers a more significant improvement, the spider or going from the standard 24/192 version to the "UP" status, especially considering the prices.

Barrelchief, I would not miss out on either the 1-UP upgrade or the Spider. I did the 1-UP upgrade a year and a half ago and it was a solid improvement. The Spider was surprisingly good, but my system is tremendously more revealing now when I added the Spider than 1.5 years ago and it is now hard to separate what each upgrade will be worth more to you in your system.

If you have the cash to do both (and I would do both), I would suggest that you do the 1-UP (get them to replace the internal RCA connector with a shielded silver wire as well if you are going to use the RCA out from the EMC) and then get the Spider.

If you do not get enough sonic improvement out of the Spider in your system, you can sell it to Subaruguru (if he has not broken down and bought a Spider by then). I am guessing that the 1-UP will also be a lot easier re-sale in the used market if you ever decide to sell it down the road and you should be able to recover a percentage of the cost of the Spider.

You can contact Brian Ackerman at Artistic Audio or Fs Audio and work your best deal on the 1-UP upgrade. The turn around time was only a couple of days at the factory plus shipping time when I did mine. The Importer, Allan Warshaw was good about booking appointments and will have you ship your unit directly to them when they are ready to work on yours. You won't be without your player for long.

Well Tvad, that's very interesting. You are the first I've heard of that was not impressed with the improvement wrought by the Spider. Not that I've heard from that many, but the few that have commented have been quite enthusiastic. I wonder if you have installed it correctly? Given the play you're experiencing, this isn't an unreasonable question. Also, while I think the EMC-1UP a very good player, IMO, it can most definitely be improved upon sonically and I have heard that Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio has worked some magic with the player. Unfortunately, the magic comes at substantial expense for those willing to take the plunge. One look under the hood of the EMC-1UP and even a decidedly non techie like me can see it's not exactly built to the highest standards. IMO, it's quite a tribute to the designer's skills that the EMC-1UP sounds as good as it does considering the parts involved. As for the Spider, if I can get one at a discounted price, I'll still take the plunge despite your assessment. If it yields a 3-5% improvement, I'll be satisfied.