My CDSA now has upwards of 200 hours on it. This unit is absolutely REMARKABLE !! The initial bass bloat which others have commented on and I heard early on is gone. The bass is now tight and tuneful. The overall presentation is breathtakingly natural, dare I say analog, sounding.
I most previously had the current version SE seperates, as well as the original non SE seperates before that. Each successive model improved significantly on the prior. I was able to A/B a fully broken in CDSA with the SE seperates both running into my Dartzeel pre-amp and I have to say I'm not sure which is better- it's that close. IMHO- if you have a pre-amp that you're happy with (the pre-amp section of the DCC2 SE is fantastic-BTW) get the CDSA. If you don't want to use a pre-amp the SE seperates are the way to go.
The CDSA @ $10k is a stone cold steal !!
I most previously had the current version SE seperates, as well as the original non SE seperates before that. Each successive model improved significantly on the prior. I was able to A/B a fully broken in CDSA with the SE seperates both running into my Dartzeel pre-amp and I have to say I'm not sure which is better- it's that close. IMHO- if you have a pre-amp that you're happy with (the pre-amp section of the DCC2 SE is fantastic-BTW) get the CDSA. If you don't want to use a pre-amp the SE seperates are the way to go.
The CDSA @ $10k is a stone cold steal !!