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EMM Labs CDSD / DCC2 - Initial Listening Session

With only 48 hours of burn-in on these pieces, this review is hardly definitive- but here goes...

I think old Ed (Meitner) has hit the cover off the ball with this, his latest offering in CD/SACD playback equipment. The following comments are based on comparisons to my previous front-end: Meitnerized Philips SACD 1000, Meitner DAC6, Meitner Switchman II and apply to both SACD & CD playback.

The CDSD & DCC2 - compared to the previous Meitner rig---

-Much deeper soundstage, much more layered, as well, width about the same.
-Hall ambiance retrieval is vastly superior.
-Tonal and timbral qualities are unsurpassed in any digital gear I've experienced. Piano reproduction is absolutely stunningly good!! Acoustic guitar has the string interaction/wooden resonance of the real thing.
-There is a "Bloom" to instuments, even voice, that seems typically absent in digital playback. This quality is very "Analog" like.
-So far, I sense not even a suggestion of stridency or digital fatigue- It is just not there. This new gear is just plain musical. That word is overused- but there is no other word to better describe the overall experience. There is a natural seamlessness and natural bloom to the music, as a whole, which reminds me of a live performance within a live venue. All of the elements of that live experience seem reproduced faithfully by the CDSD & DCC2. This is no small feat. In quantitative terms I'd say the new gear is 25%-35% better, in every listening category (it is about the same in soudstage width), than the earlier 3 piece set-up I had.

As the new gear continues to burn-in there will certainly be changes and refinements, probably for the better, which I will try to keep track of. But so far- Ooh, La, La!!!

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT:
Kharma Midi Grand
Tenor 300 HP
Jena Labs Pathfinder
Shunyata Anaconda VX & VX Alpha
fbhifi
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Tireguy, I can understand that you might hear the comparison differently, but rest assured that I am not the only one hearing this. In my experience I know two others that had EMM gear that sold it for the Exemplar and several others that on hearing the two solutions chose the Exemplar.

I would not use the word "engaging," but as I understand it, my word for this is "involving." This is precisely why I prefer the Exemplar. I find the music realistic and causing me to tap my foot and listen with satisfaction. Were the prices the same for the two, I am sure some might be inclined to buy the EMM, but at a four to one price difference, many would choose the cheaper unit.

Your weird friend
tireguy
1,964 posts
 
Tbg- As long as we are all happy :) What ever your CD's are playing through I suppose it doesn't matter at all as long as you can enjoy the music.

Wellfed- I think possibly for the first time we agree, there is more than one way to skin a cat- and probably too many ways in this hobby.
lakefrontroad
302 posts
 
S..t!

I need a freekin education. Half of you are my friends and I need a Oxford dictionary and grammer lessions just to read this thread.

Could you tone it down so that an old, under-educated feller just looking for great music can understand, without substantial investment in further education, what the hell you mean?

And who is lucky enough to actually get a CDSD? Most of us just get stories about one day we'll get ours.

I'm listening to a DCC2 with a Panasonic H1000 DVD player as a transport given the Philips doesn't play after 25 hours.

I think that when the room is tuned, we should have the good, the bad and the ugly all bring their digital gear and have a shoot out.

Then, each of us can lie about what happened.

The stories should exceed the number of people in the room. Friends, who heard from someone they trust and know that what they heard that they heard was better than what they heard someone else heard, but haven't heard.

I can't believe I need a dictionary to read a audio thread!

Bill E.
jtinn
1,124 posts
 
Tim: Rolling over from laughing my ass off. :)

Bill: I am incredulous of you inability to decipher the jargon within this inane thread.

This thread is wonderful. :)
jjwa
69 posts
 
Out of the box, I was not so impressed, (I have the DCC2 replacing my CHORD DAC64 connected via TOSLINK on a CHORD BLU transport)......the sound seemed flat & hard.
Now after about 10 hours play time it's a whole different storey.
Everything I want to say about the DCC2 has already been said by some of you wonderful people on the ..GON and I will just regurgitate some of the highlights: natural, unbelievably detail, precise deep/wide/ soundstage etc.
Thanks to all who posted their experiences (FBHIFI,TIREGUY, HOOPER, CEOL, JTINN.....etc.) I bought on your recommendations without ever having heard or seen. Now I'm just waiting for the CDSD that will probably bring me to the stratosphere.....
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