DACs: Burmester vs. Meitner vs. dcs

I talked to EMM Labs about running a Placette passive volume control and they did not reccommend it. It's not a sufficient current output and the signal would be out of balance regarding tone.

Again, the DCS gear is optimized for direct connection to an amp. Pass Labs D-1 and the DCS are the only ones I've personally heard that will actually drive any length of cable and sound top notch. Camelot Uther is anothernice one I heard but lower on the food chain. As an example, I bouhgt the Marantz SA-1 when it first appeared. I was all excited because I could take that big balanced output (6 volts ) and use a Placette (I'm a big fan of pasive pre-amps and volume controls) volume control. It sounded awful. The 6 volts wasn't optimised for driving an amp same as EMM.

Sm2727, you can add the Audio Synthesis DAX Discrete as another digital component that sounds great straight into an amp, even through a lengthy interconnect. I have had mine connected with 50' Mogami Neglex microphone cables with truly great results. My DAX Discrete has the balanced differential output option.

Sm2727, i've been running my emmlabs DAC6 thru the Placette for the last year.....it has outperformed all pre's that it has been compared against in that configuration. the Placette is mean't to be completely neutral to the source (as long as a short i.c. is used between it and the amps).

as you would expect, emmlabs is selling DCC2's and Switchman's.....it would make sense that they will recommend those. to be fair, i have not compared the DAC6/Placette to the DCC2.....it could be better. but i have compared the DAC6/Placette to the DAC6/Switchman 'I' preferred the DAC6/Placette.

YMMV

First I believe all of the above Dacs are good. I've had the DCC2 for several months. The Meitner and the Phillips are very sensitive (more than most) to powercords. I love my set up with power cords that follow the Shunyata school(richer). But with that said, I've tried some power cords that were forward and I did not like the sound at all. Anyone seriously trying out these units should try to maximize the performance of each unit, then make their assessment.