Hi Rgs92. I too was a long time EMM fan. I just loved the clarity of the EMM units but they tended to be edgy in the highs. The SE version cured that to some extent. My last EMM gear was the DCC2 SE and CDSD SE like you have. I traded mine in for the Playback Designs player which I liked better because to me it still had the clariety but with more weight to the images making it a little more organic or less edgy on a wider variety of discs.
I don't understand your impressions of the upper bass/lower mids as I don't hear that at all. Maybe it's a matter of different associated equipment. I run mine throught an Ear 868 tubed preamp to Lamm 1.2 Ref. monos to Talon Firebirds with diamond tweeter. It's a very resolving system and the PD sounds wonderful in it. I also run an APL NWO4.0 SE direct to the Lamms which is also wonderful.
I would love to hear the XDS 1 in my system sometime.
Frank
I don't understand your impressions of the upper bass/lower mids as I don't hear that at all. Maybe it's a matter of different associated equipment. I run mine throught an Ear 868 tubed preamp to Lamm 1.2 Ref. monos to Talon Firebirds with diamond tweeter. It's a very resolving system and the PD sounds wonderful in it. I also run an APL NWO4.0 SE direct to the Lamms which is also wonderful.
I would love to hear the XDS 1 in my system sometime.
Frank