I am an Electrocompaniet dealer, so take my opinion with a "grain of salt" ;-)
The ECD-1 is indeed the EXACT same DAC as used in the latest EMC-1. It is an amazing piece and with a decent transport and interconnect, you can obtain performance VERY close, if not equal to the EMC-1. When I state decent transport, I simply mean not a $99 high-volume CD player. As long as the signal leaving the transport is clean with fairly low jitter, you will be amazed. For the money ($1995), it is tough to beat, IMHO. Of course the EMC-1 is the better of the two solutions, but not by much and of course you need to take the $5500 price into consideration. For the person that wants the BEST (IMHO) one-box solution, the EMC-1 is still the cheapest of the three "super" players available (Audiomecca, Audio Aero being the other two of course).
Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio
The ECD-1 is indeed the EXACT same DAC as used in the latest EMC-1. It is an amazing piece and with a decent transport and interconnect, you can obtain performance VERY close, if not equal to the EMC-1. When I state decent transport, I simply mean not a $99 high-volume CD player. As long as the signal leaving the transport is clean with fairly low jitter, you will be amazed. For the money ($1995), it is tough to beat, IMHO. Of course the EMC-1 is the better of the two solutions, but not by much and of course you need to take the $5500 price into consideration. For the person that wants the BEST (IMHO) one-box solution, the EMC-1 is still the cheapest of the three "super" players available (Audiomecca, Audio Aero being the other two of course).
Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio