EMM Labs new XSD1 single box player

My original question did start out with 'for those of you that attend' as opposed to 'attended', .. what did you think?.

That aside, single box versions do have shorter signal paths. I am sure Mr. Meitner et al. have new ideas which may be incorporated in the new single box design. That not withstanding, maybe I should go to the AudioFederation site before I type this, but no one ever accused me of being bright.

My original question did start out with 'for those of you that attend' as opposed to 'attended', .. what did you think?.

How can I form an opinion on a demo which hasn't occurred yet?

I'm not trying to be difficult but honestly don't know what you are asking.

I will have a reply for you in about a week however. :)

Thanks Jim. I wasn't trying to offend anyone.

Yes, the XSD1 was on display and it sounded very good.

Here are a few pics:

http://www.fototime.com/8CA7D3A112CC0AA/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/0DE50E9249BE762/standard.jpg

First review up here:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/hi-fi-and-audio/cd-players-and-recorders/emm-labs-xds1-645292/review?src=rss&attr=reviewhi-fi

While I'm not a big SACD guy (very limited musical selection and uneven quality), the review sells the CD side well short; you don't have to care about SACD to seriously consider this player imo.

Also, the claim that the fit and finish leave something to be desired is, at best, laughable. While not up to the herculean efforts of my current Wadia 861se (certainly in the upper echelon of CDPs in terms of fit and finish) no excuses generally need to be made (well, other than EMM Labs making sure that the screws on the bottom of the unit are secured properly so that they don't come loose in transit, but since they are regular philips screws they can be tightened without too much trouble) and the ergonomics are superior to Wadia in at least one noticeable aspect - direct selection of digital inputs (Wadia, why is this so difficult to implement?!?).