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EMM Labs CDSD / DCC2 - Initial Listening Session

With only 48 hours of burn-in on these pieces, this review is hardly definitive- but here goes...

I think old Ed (Meitner) has hit the cover off the ball with this, his latest offering in CD/SACD playback equipment. The following comments are based on comparisons to my previous front-end: Meitnerized Philips SACD 1000, Meitner DAC6, Meitner Switchman II and apply to both SACD & CD playback.

The CDSD & DCC2 - compared to the previous Meitner rig---

-Much deeper soundstage, much more layered, as well, width about the same.
-Hall ambiance retrieval is vastly superior.
-Tonal and timbral qualities are unsurpassed in any digital gear I've experienced. Piano reproduction is absolutely stunningly good!! Acoustic guitar has the string interaction/wooden resonance of the real thing.
-There is a "Bloom" to instuments, even voice, that seems typically absent in digital playback. This quality is very "Analog" like.
-So far, I sense not even a suggestion of stridency or digital fatigue- It is just not there. This new gear is just plain musical. That word is overused- but there is no other word to better describe the overall experience. There is a natural seamlessness and natural bloom to the music, as a whole, which reminds me of a live performance within a live venue. All of the elements of that live experience seem reproduced faithfully by the CDSD & DCC2. This is no small feat. In quantitative terms I'd say the new gear is 25%-35% better, in every listening category (it is about the same in soudstage width), than the earlier 3 piece set-up I had.

As the new gear continues to burn-in there will certainly be changes and refinements, probably for the better, which I will try to keep track of. But so far- Ooh, La, La!!!

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT:
Kharma Midi Grand
Tenor 300 HP
Jena Labs Pathfinder
Shunyata Anaconda VX & VX Alpha
fbhifi

Showing 11 responses by tbg

tbg
5,263 posts
 
Why is it better? Is it all the transport?
tbg
5,263 posts
 
It would be a shame were the improvement to be in software as that was supposedly an easy update for EMM equipment. But maybe it is the built in preamp.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
The only thing vital in all of these posts is that the DCC2 sounds considerable better than the DAC6/Switchman combo. If given a chance, I certainly will give it a listen, and I would love to have it side by side with the Exemplar/H-Cat combo.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Good points, Ceol. Is there a DCC6 coming? On another thread there is obviously pressure on moders to do 6 channel mods on players, not that I have any interest.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
I disagree with Brucegel. Given the overall message in this thread, I think buyers are very happy with what they are hearing with this combo and more importantly for me, they find it better than the DAC6/Phillips 1000 combo which I have heard.

Greater realism is the name of the game, including a realistic soundstage, great dynamics, and involving music. As might be noted from another thread, words like dark may fail us as we are discribing what we hear, but until we can post sounds, it is all we have.

What is "ego inflated, overpriced gear?" What Brucegel cannot or will not afford?
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Given my other posts extolling the virtues of the Exemplar over the EMM, please don't assume that I am caught up in the rush to the DCC2/CDSD combo. I now am fairly confident that it is superior to the DAC6/Phillips sacd 1000 combo, which my Exemplar easily outperformed. So I will now have to give the DCC2 some leeway until I get to hear it.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
I guess I am painted with the broad brush as a "money boy" for whatever use there is in this blah, blah. I would agree about the continuum from great detail with a lack of harmonics to a more "musical" harmonically rich sound. I also think there is a scale of dynamics and one of degree of smear or undo smoothness that is often, but not always, a characteristic of tubes. All of this complexity fails to be of much use to me, as does how much the component costs. So in reality I would merely say once again that I now have to hear again the DCC2 to find out whether it can rival my untubelike Exemplar/Denon 2900 in my digital front end.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Others suffer from delusions of grander and of unwarranted sense of authority.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Keep up your guard and sell your preamp, you fool!
tbg
5,263 posts
 
realrookie says, "One can argue that the Meitner may currently be the best digital playback system out there." It isn't. I just had the opportunity to listen to the DCC2 and transport combo. We had no vinyl with which to compare it, but it was a revealing system. I was unable to bring along my Exemplar/Denon 2900, but my listening impressions would hardly lead me to want to go back to EMM equipment. While detailed and listenable, the EMM had none of the realism and soundstage that is so evident with the Exemplar. I had really assumed given all that has been said here and on AA, that the DCC2 and transports were an improvement above and beyond the DAC6 and moded Phillips sacd 1000.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Tireguy, I can understand that you might hear the comparison differently, but rest assured that I am not the only one hearing this. In my experience I know two others that had EMM gear that sold it for the Exemplar and several others that on hearing the two solutions chose the Exemplar.

I would not use the word "engaging," but as I understand it, my word for this is "involving." This is precisely why I prefer the Exemplar. I find the music realistic and causing me to tap my foot and listen with satisfaction. Were the prices the same for the two, I am sure some might be inclined to buy the EMM, but at a four to one price difference, many would choose the cheaper unit.

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