EMM Labs DAC6 vs. latest version dCS

Sorry to hijack the thread but I recently heard a re-tooled by John Wright BiDat using a hotrodded 333ES as a transport compared to a Channel Islands DAC with upgraded power supply. A caveat being that the BiDat was very fresh with less than 20 hours on it and IMHO it was more different than better than the CI DAC. Both DACs had a detailed and to my ears a musical (hackneyed to death) presentation and I might be persuaded to give the Museatex a slight edge in data retreival but the little CI DAC was not embarassed in any way running up against the much more expensive BiDat. Possibly a better transport and digital cable may have widened the gap somewhat but I can only report on what I heard.

As far as comparing the Meitner stuff I heard it at the show in Montreal this past March in a Halcro/Eggelston/Valhalla system and was less than impressed. I understand that the Meitner/Tenor/Kharma room was substantially better but unfortunately I didn't get much of an opportunity to hear it...

Rdg & Tireguy, The BiDat does take a while to settle down after the modifications. At one point with my BiDat, after 30 hours (I think), I told John Wright I was VERY unhappy with it...and inquired whether or not I could return it. IT sounded broken. In my experience "break-in" is over rated and for components I've owned, 80-90% of the true/final sonic signature is present out of the box. The BiDat however changes dramatically. I find it difficult to put a percentage on how significant the change is between a fresh BiDat and a fully broken in one. It's that dramatic.

One thing about the BiDat that differs from top one box players is that there is simply NO "hocus pocus" to the sound, meaning it doesn't have an outwardly, nifty way of candy coating music to make one immediately think its better. Its difficult to pin-point exactly what the BiDat does in order to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Put a BiDat side by side with an analog source and it is extremely close. Try that analog/digital comparison with ANY other one box player and you'll sell your digital.

Tireguy - you have a VERY good point, thanks for bringing that up. Romy has been known to railroad more than a few good threads. I've managed to find something similar to humor in his posts - so they don't bother me too much. And.. If I look hard enough, I usually find something useful. It seems that Romy is not too keen on making recommendations because he doesn't like to take responsibility for people's finances - and/or reactions to various components which may differ from his.

this is a good thread that should be continued if possible. I have been communicating with Bryan (Bwhite) off-line re: the Melior/Meitner stuff, as I will be the first one to be testing a special 'signature' version of the Melior 'Data II' (John Wright's modded Melior Datatream dac). The Data II is already superb, however he has some Black Gates coming in, and a larger power transformer that we will be adding to my already modded unit. I will try to remember to post results. The Data II is VERY similar to the Bidat in performance, and I second everything Bwhite has said. It competed VERY well with my ref setup- Spectral 3000SL transport/Audio Note 3.1x balalnced dac. More to come...

Becareful when buying dCS. If you do not have a warranty card from them they will treat the manufacture shipping date as the start of warranty coverage. The inspection card from the US Distributor Audio System do not count. My friend purchased Verdi from Internet dealer with US Distributor inspection stating Dec. 2003 inspection but the unit broke down and dCS said the unit was shipped in Nov. 2001 and will not honour warranty. End up paying $2K for repair to CD mechanism. How can a unit that expensive broke down in such a short time? Reliability problem?

Prefer the EMM over the DCS as at least it is musical, but prefer many redbook digital systems over both units so will side with Romy on his modified units as have never heard any combination SACD/Redbook system sound much like music.....