Reimyo CDP vs EMM Labs/Meitner

Jond,

I am mentioning the Reimyo in comparison to the EMM each in their own strengths. The EMM is fabulous on SACD. I find it OK on CD. The Reimyo is fabulous on CD & of course can only play a hybrid SACD (CD layer). But comparing the Reimyo on the CD layer to the Meitner on SACD layer is what I am curious about. Which one brings you closest to the source. It is a tough. I find the EMM on SACD to be incredible. The Reimyo on XRCDs sounded incredible. I haven't listened to XRCD on the EMM. The Reimyo on the CD layer of my hybrid SACD sounded good but not great. The EMM on the CD layer also sounded good not great. But on the SACD layer it did sound great. I know it sounds confusing but I am approaching both units from thier strengths. The one major limitation is software availability on SACD vs CD. But if the Reimyo is "fussy" about software then things become different. Of that I am not sure but would love to hear what people say. For me what is important is both the units performing under their best circumstances and how they perform on "regular" music we listen to all the time. I would love to hear from someone who did a head to head comparison.

Dgad, if you don’t mind me asking, you stated that the two players sounded good but not great on the CD layer but the EMM sounded great on SACD; was this consistent on many CD's or are you talking of one particular CD? Obviously each layer is mastered independently, so the CD layer on a hybrid could be not so great and the SACD layer great with the mastering having as much to do with it than anything.

Paraphrasing Dgad's experience(and that of others), the Reimyo CDP-777 is superior with respect to redbook presentation in any apples to apples face-off between the two playback systems.

I recently spoke to someone that is running the Emm
setup into a tubed pre amp and loves the standard cd
performance. That said, I wish there was a Reimyo in
the Midwest to audition.

I've bought numerous hybrid SACD's to use on my Reimyo. To me it's all about the quality of the recording because some SACD's sound absoluting amazing (Matt Haimovitz:Please Welcome.../Jeremy Monteiro Trio:A Song For You Karen/ Colin Linden:Big Mouth) while others are very mediocre at best. I find redbook to be the same: some good, some okay and some bad. For me, the majority (by far) of my software is redbook. Buying a player for superior SACD and redbook that is "okay" (at that price point) did not make sense for me and I love my preamp so no need for that extra. I opted for a redbook player that I felt was superior on redbook and in build quality. Again, personal needs and taste reign and are unique to each of us.