Best CD player money can buy ? MBL, Nagra, Naim?

Newly; just curious.....is there something about the EMM Labs SE gear that causes you to want something different? i understand the desire to have the best and am not being critical.

i've owned the CDSD SE and DAC6 SE for the last year or so and i have been very happy. i have found that every system tweak brings more and more detail and musical energy from the SE gear. particularly recently a few power grid tweaks really dramatized the advantage of SACD over redbook.

i have not heard every new piece of gear out there but my guess is that at the level of difference we are speaking here most of the stuff already mentioned above would be choosen based on system and taste context. digital gear with tubed outputs is typically at a disadvantage in an already neutral and natural system. ss output gear is many times at a disadvantage in a 'challenged' rooms and setups. then one's musical reference comes into the picture.

there are many excellent digital players......at least get some SACD's and enjoy what they bring before you go redbook only.

just my 2 cents.

I was going to suggest the same thing as I think Mikelavigne suggested. If you buy a selection of SACDs of music you enjoy, you might find that it is worthwhile keeping the emmlabs. My opinion is that at this level of digital playback, it is the other changes one makes in the system which matter more.

i would like to add for clarity; my EMM Labs SE redbook performance is better than any other i have heard.....in my system, to my tastes, to my ears. i have not heard everything out there and at the top of the heap the differences are not large.

YMMV.

Sacds are an fly in most top-end players. They don't play them. I am going to have to have a separate sacd player. The new hard-drive systems such as the Memory Player will have no sacd capability, or at least all that I know of, lack the ability to play sacds. Since the EMM equipment converts redbook into dsd, it avoids this problem. Unfortunately for me I don't like redbook so converted on the EMM equipment.

In agreement with what a few members have already suggested, there is no need to purchase a separate redbook-only CD player with your Meitner. Its redbook performance capability is quite good. It is an added plus that it also plays SACDs well.

In general a dedicated SACD or redbook player does not necessarily guarantee that each will yield the best possible performance for its respective format. I have heard a significant number of multi format CD players outperform highly regarded redbook-only players when using only redbook CDs. If you end up purchasing the best redbook CD player, then great! There are some very good redbook-only CD players already suggested. However, acquiring one, does not mean that you will not find a multi-format player that can outperform it on redbook CDs.

Here is an example: A group of fellow audio crazies and I recently heard some of the very best cd players side by side. We compared them in a blind, controlled, level-adjusted manner. The players were the latest iteration of the EMM Labs (CDSD SE /DCC2 SE) Signature Edition, latest single box unit from DCS, current top of the line Meridian, an APL NOW 2.5T and a Resolution Audio Opus 21 modified by Great Northern Sound. All of them play redbook and all play SACDs, except for the Opus 21. For details you may want to visit this thread (but only when you have the time; it has gotten quite lengthy with about 136 replies):

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1172688055&read&3&4&

The performances of the top three players we ranked are excellent on both SACD and redbook CDs. So the need to purchase separate redbook only player is not necessary for any of them. In fact, when using redbok CDs alone, all the multi-format players outranked the superb redbook-only player in the lineup.

It is worth mentioning that among this heap of highly regarded, top-of-the-line players we evaluated, the performance differences were noticeable. They were certainly noticeable enough for us, in a blinded, level adjusted manner, to determine the better of any two players we compared. Further, the performance differences allowed us to arrive at fairly conclusive overall rankings, which was consistent in the two separate systems used (despite the use of a different set of recordings for each system).