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Opinions of the EMM DCC2 SE

I am seriously considering changing my analog linestage with built in phono amp to a digital linestage with built in DAC. The EMM DCC2 SE seems like a worthy successor to my HP 200 MC. Any thoughts or caveats would be appreciated.
khrys
rcprince
3,079 posts
 
I've been using my DCC2 SE for the past month while my Jadis JP 200 is in for repairs and refurbishing. It is a very, very good line stage, transparent and detailed, with excellent dynamics and soundstaging. It is not, however, a tubed preamp, and it definitely lacks the bloom and last bit of dimensionality you get from a tubed preamp (this was made absolutely clear to me when I borrowed a Shindo preamp for a week), particularly your Hovland, which I recall seemed to lean to the romantic side of neutral when I heard it. As a DAC, the DCC2 is tough to beat--I'd rank it in the top tier of DACs available today, and its synergy with the CDSD transport due to the optical connections is remarkable. I can get used to the lack of bloom, but I don't think it's ultimately as seductive to me as my Jadis, which I miss. Great back-up to have, though. The other thing to remember about the DCC2 is that it has only one analog input, so it's not as versatile as other line stages. I have to choose between my turntable and my tuner as my analog source, and I find that to be a drawback.
french_fries
815 posts
 
the DCC2SE has TWO ANALOG INPUTS- one rca and the other xlr.
i bought a pair of cardas xlr-male to rca female ($65) so i could use both. the preamp is crystal clear but it lacks the last bit of musicality- my terms in this case would be "body" or "palpability", arguably stupid descriptions for something i can't quite describe. but something is bleached out of the mix, and i don't use tubes. a rowland consummate preamp (an ancient piece of junk, right?- not!) provided a more pleasing sound- although slightly less detailed, and a touch more grain.
i am biased towards the rowland sound though. i haven't heard the hovland, but i think from the reviews on it, that it is ultimately way-noisier than the DCC2-SE, unlike the newer tube-designs that have a much-improved noise-floor.
EMM should make a stand-alone 2-channel dac just like they finally came out with a stand-alone cd player. but you could always spring for a dac-6e (the non-se would be pretty good also, and inexpensive these days), and just use the 1st two outputs.
goatwuss
877 posts
 
Hi

What problems with the sound are you experiencing with your Hovland?
radioheadokplayer
181 posts
 
I found the emmlabs dcc2 se was an impressive line stage that was almost as good as the audio research ref 3 when paired with my dartzeel amplifier. I sold it only because I wanted the dartzeel preamplifier which has a special synergy with the dartzeel amplifier which in combination outshines the emmlabs preamp handily.

Michael
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