Comparison Cary 306, Wadia 581, EMM Labs CDSA

For anyone living on the bleeding edge of technology, there are going to be issues. I believe most companies have faltered at least a couple times in customer service and reliability. I would agree upon the importance of hearing equipment yourself. However, that is difficult for most and arguable whether valid under most conditions.

These threads are important to better understand manufacturer issues which may affect us. People have taken shots and Wadia, and same with EMM. In the end, one has to consider the facts, the source, and make an informed decision. Since the reviewers do nothing more than heap praise upon all that come through their system, we need to rely on each other to help buy the equipment that best suits our own tastes.

Each of the units in the original post have vastly different sonic signatures. It really depends upon the what the poster values in listening to music. Since there is no indication as to what that may be, we get threads that have nothing more than polarizing views.

Rob

I wonder if the new CDSA will be a true SACD player. The Mediatek digital transport used in the original CDSA was not able to output pure DSD signal, but converted it to 88,2kHz instead (and then upsampled it to 2x DSD).

Bud, Ed designs and builds some gear that is State Of The Art. He has defined SOTA. I mention this in one or more of my responses. This unit has not been one of them. I am not alone here, witness other responses. What the heck is an indirect competitor anyway? I would love to carry this piece if/when it runs. There is a lot of competition at this price point. My "motivation" is the same as my "agenda". If you have in fact been following, I offered advice to a member of a community I care about. From first hand knowledge/experience.

Rhyno, You are a bit naive to think EMM would voluntarily offer to folks "please don't buy now, we're not ready". "OOPS" is not a word mfgrs use. The same goes for folks who just dropped ten large and are unable to listen to music. Only if the mfgr. did not work with them would they be likely to share their misfortune.

Palmetto, I will be visiting you. Your attitude is very mature and professional. There are some things we could talk about. Thanks again for the invite. Z.

I look forward to seeing you in a few months. We have a lot of surprises for our visitors.

Hi Bauerp,

If you don't like the Krell sound then stay away from it. Their philosophy has been the same from day one. It's a matter of taste and I will not argue with anyone when it comes to personal taste. After all it's important in any audio purchase, more so with speakers though. By the way I like the Krell sound, my preference only. But for CD players not necessarly.