Electrocompaniet EMC II CD Player

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.

Tvad, I checked my EMC-1UP to see if the spindle allowed any play on my unit after installing the Spider and in my case it is solid as a rock.

The significant sonic improvements that I am experiencing and increase in emotional involvement are not at all small or hard to perceive. I don’t think you have to have an exceptional ear to appreciate the improvements and difference I heard after installing the Spider.

I can only guess that the play that your CD has around the spindle might possibly be preventing you from getting the benefits from the Spider.

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has done the Empirical Audio mod by Steve Nugent. It would be great to hear what benefits came out of the mod and in particular from someone that is running out of the RCA into a tubed pre-amp (I am currently going out of the RCA outs into RCA's inputs of a Supratek Cortese). Do you think it was worth the $ 1,400.00

Has anyone tried replacing the internal RCA connector with a better shielded silver wire, and if so what kind of results did you get ?