ELECTROCOMPANIET ECI 6 DX MKII

@jc51373 

Thanks for your comments. 

There are reviews around.  Also I own the ECI 6D, which is a version with a built in DAC, no streamer. 

I think it's really good ,gorgeous sound.  Tonality is excellent, and I like it better than tthe PS audio stellar strata integrated which I also owned at one time.  Two different sounds though one was not better than the other really, depends on your preference.  

My ECI 6D is collecting dust now however, as I have moved into separates with a pre-amp that is tube based from Rogue Audio, and two mono block amps from Auralic.  DAC is the Cyan2, though the onboard dac in the EC is no slouch and has slightly warm character. 

It took a lot to unseat it as my favorite.  The EC is apparently a well known name in the EU, but not so much here in the US.  They make excellent sounding components are are well worth a listen.  

I own the non-DAC/streamer version and like it quite a bit. It does not have quite the level of three dimensionality of my tubed gear, but it is very good and without any sense of harshness. It's a smooth and fairly lush sound while still retaining detail. The controller is a bit awkward in that it has oddly chosen labels for the inputs (HT, DVD, CD, and AUX). DVD and AUX are just a standard line level inputs, while CD is a balanced input. HT is home theater which I know nothing about. Who uses a DVD player in a $6200 integrated? Why is the balanced input labeled CD? Why not just balanced? It seems like they just repurposed an old controller which is odd in a flagship integrated amp. In reality it has very little impact on day to day use, but I dislike half-measures and this seems like a fairly simple thing to reprogram. All in all, it's a great sounding amp that can handle 2ohm loads which allows a very wide variety of speakers. It's also dead quiet. 

@patrickcarey , @jmalev 

Thanks for your comments