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

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.

Can't disagree with Emigene.

Anyone ever heard the Electrocompaniet Emc 1-UP or compared it to some of the gold standard players mentioned?

Recently had a chance to audition the new Boulder 1021 CD player at a local dealer. My comments will be prefaced by the dislaimer that listening to anything outside of your home system makes analysis challenging. The Boulder CD player is ultra-expensive (24K). However, it is a beautiful piece, and has some uniques attributes in how it reads CD's. Anyway, it was paired with Wilson Maxx 2 speakers, and the lower Boulder series (800) preamp and powers amps. We A/B'ed with the Esoteric X-01 player. The Boulder was clearly superior and offered improved detail with a lack of grain and hash that one would not have noticed if the Boulder didn't remove it. Whether it bests any of the others previously mentioned I cannot say. It is likely worthy of mention in the uber-CD player category.

What's unique about how the Boulder reads CDs and is it measurable somehow outside of subjective listening?