Any experience with the new EMM CDSA SE ?

Deshapiro: I agree. That would be an elegant solution for people who like the Meitner sound and want to add a PC front end. If they somehow allowed a digital stream through the player's USB port, even better (wishful thinking...)

Dgad, as you said you spoke with EMM, can you elaborate on exactly the difference in sound the for each? You mention only technical/design differences, but what are the sonic impacts...and are they noticable? We all know that power cables and interconnects can alter the sound. It's interesting to note that many comments written are similar, however the equipment its listened on is wildly differing!

One thing is true though, the burn-in time is 2-300 hours before the player stabilizes completely, for each CD and SACD circuits. Once that's behind you though, it's an absolutely remarkable player. It went miles past my prior player, Accuphase DP77, which was regarded in the German Stereo magazine listing as the topplayer since it came out in 2003. No doubt that for $10k this player is in a league of its own...despite some build/user frienliness weaknesses.

Regards
Henry

Henry,

I haven't had the opportunity to hear the SE separates. Simply explained, they are basically the same except for very slight differences in power supplies (a single power supply used for both digital & analogue in the 1 box) and a single chassis w. no need for any connecting cables. It then gets down to money. That is a big difference. The SACD sound is certainly better than the non SE version. It is not huge, but a nice subtle improvement. It was excellent in the 1st place w. the separates. CD is still in the air as I don't find either truly special yet. I am still breaking in the CD section.

Obviously if you don't need the pre-amp functionality and the greater number of inputs, the single box player is the way to go. I got my DCC2 and used it for the pre amp as well (pretty good by the way!) until I purchased the Darts. If I had to do it all over again, I would go for the single box player (which was not around at the time), save the money and invest elsewhere. The sonic differences are likely to be minimal if they exist at all...and both are extremely good!

What is the purpose of the low and high gain settings? I can't imagine 4v is enough in almost any system. Some have said the higher setting sounds better, but not sure why that would be. Any thoughts? Consenus on the two settings?