Okay......best single box reference CD player

i suppose it is hard to isolate performance to just the DAC; but i do think that my perception of the performance advances of the Playback Designs is likely due a great deal to it's unique DAC design.

the DAC in the Playback Designs MPS-5 has an open architecture; it can be 1 bit-5.6mhz or 32 bit-196mhz, 72 bit-496 mhz or anything they want it to be. thru the USB port the software can be updated to whatever they want. algorithms can be updated.

this approach; properly implimented.....would likely trump any older set of 'off-the-shelf' dac chips. and would also be likely to stay at the top level of performance longer since it can be upgraded thru software.

the challenge, of course, is 'properly implimented'.

Mike I agree with you about the other DACs but EMM LABS still has the best SOTA DAC which can also be updated through the USB port. As everyone knows, differences between great cd players are very subtle and it takes great experience with hi-end, musical organs, and music productions to determine what is more "correct". And I think the EMM LABS is the best out there.

There is not the best single box CD player, as a component of a systems it depends of the rest of the chain.Said this, I think that EMM LABS CDSA, Reymio, Puccini, Naim 555 , Memory player are among the best, I have not heard PD MPS5.
But perhaps the question is: I need to pay 2 or 3 times more for to get a little better sound? When we make this question, we are talking about relation price/quality, that is a very different thing that maximum quality at any cost, and logically the answers will be differents.
Jean Hiraga, the french engineer who was the first to talk about sound in relation components, and designed great tubes amps that were on Stereophile class A, one time said: if you have a great system, that give you the 95% of the posible quality achievable, to upgrade it to achieve the 96%, you surely need to expend twice the price, but if you have a system with quality 60%, then to achieve 65% you only need to expend a little more, the conclusion is: when we are talking about great systems or components any small increase in quality must be paid with a lot of money.
I have heard dCS Scarlatti system, I don´t want to say that is the best, but surely, because I heard it , take a seat, with one integrated amplifier, I don´t remember the brand but perhaps Arcam? and speakers that I don´t remember,and the sound were incredible, and after also with systems with BAT, Spectral, Soulution, FM acoustics, said this I want to say that it surely sounds better than the EMM labs combo, but I don´t want to expend the money to achieve this small amount of better quality, but if money wasn´t the question, I will buy it to achieve what I think it´s the best, and for one single box, surely I will buy Memory player, it has the futur inside.

Well said Emigene.

Dave

Mike I agree with you about the other DACs but EMM LABS still has the best SOTA DAC which can also be updated through the USB port. As everyone knows, differences between great cd players are very subtle and it takes great experience with hi-end, musical organs, and music productions to determine what is more "correct". And I think the EMM LABS is the best out there.

hi Argyro; i owned EMM Labs for the last 6 years. first the original DAC6 with the modified Philips SACD-1000 transport.....then i got the original CDSD transport, and then later i got the SE combo CDSD and DAC6.

the only one of these units which is 'user' software upgradeable by USB port is the transport CDSD SE. none of the DAC's are upgradeable by a consumer and none have a USB port. i cannot say what can be done by sending the unit back to EMM Labs.....there may be some sort of DAC upgrade that way. of course; you could say that about any digital player. but rarely does anyone upgrade DAC chips because the whole player is designed around a particular DAC chip set.

the CDSA does have a USB port which potentially could upgrade the DAC. but why would their second tier unit have an upgradable DAC and the DAC6 SE and DCC2 SE not have that same capability? it's more likely the USB port on the CDSA is there for the same reason it's on the CDSD, to update the transport software.

regarding performance i agree that the EMM Labs is excellent. OTOH in my listening tests the Playback Designs was quite a bit better to my ears.