EMM Labs on Bad Redbook

I suggest you ask A-Gon Member Hooper (who may chime in here) as he has the EMM Labs gear and, by his own admission, owns some discs that are not the best pressings. In my experience, when Hooper has been at my home with his poorly recorded stuff and listening to my EMM Labs gear, it will not make badly recorded CDs sound good - which is what I would expect from a truly world class player like the EMM (ir any other).

Just my $.02

PS - Just so you know, Hooper has many fine CDs as well.

Nothing, IMO, can make those bad, crappy redbook discs from the 80's and early 90's sound like vinyl.

my experience has been that the better the digital source (and accompanying system), the worse those discs sound.

Agreed. You are better off buying a secondary, mass market $200 player with rolled-off treble to play those early CD's, and use your high-end CDP for the better recordings.