Emm Labs DV2 versus Tambaqui

@lordmelton  Great vinyl should sound like a great recording, studio or hall with close miking.   It won't sound like a highly reverberant hall that is so in vogue for the last 40 years.   Live acoustic music sounds great in a large venue but not so good on vinyl when recorded far from the source.   Rock benefits from close miking as well.   Two different listening environments deserve two different approaches, one for live music and the other for recorded music.   That's my opinion (and the opinion of great recording engineers from the 50's to the 80's.  

@sns  I agree.  I have 28.500 LPs, 7,000 78s and 7,000 CDs.   I love both LP and CD formats with the latter being the most convenient/easy to use.   I'm knocking the other guy (or anyone) who dismisses vinyl, good vinyl (good mastering and pressing).  My favorite recordings (in both CD and vinyl versions) are Mercury Living Presence & RCA Living Stereo/London from 50's and 60's and Jazz on Contemporary (and all the Fantasy group), World Pacific, etc. generally.  Orchestral, chamber, solo violin/piano, etc. recordings of the past several decades suffer from distant miking, sometimes sounding like the mikes were facing away or backwards.  Other times they are often as you described rear of hall.   The great older recordings were a mix of up front miking combined with either natural or added slight reverb for capturing hall sound.  

What I say, after 55 years of performing (35 years as an amateur recording engineer) with orchestras, chamber groups and choruses is that live performances sound different generally from recordings heard at home.  I have not SOTA high end audio gear in a SOTA (one version) listening room.  My friends include reknown remastering engineers who cut LPs (as well CDs when they were more popular).  

I am not going the streaming route as I have both plenty of recordings and 1/3 or more of my collection will never be available for streaming (ethnic, esoteric labels such as Biddulph, Marston, Romophone, 50+ year old recordings with reduced interest for reissuance on line).   

I am searching for a better CD playback and tried several higher end DACs (including a COS Engineering D1v).  My current DAC is a Benchmark from 2011 super upgraded using a pair of $50 regulators (they used 50¢ ones), audio caps instead of computer caps, a new audio board and superior power filtering.  I haven't had success with transports (last was PS Audio-wow, a disappointment but nice company) as either too clean or lovely/warm sounding but smeared.  Next either a Jay's Audio transport or a Luxman D-03X CD player.  If I like the D-03X, maybe a D-10X.   Is the Mola Mola really a 2007 DAC design?  The May didn't hold up to the Musetec 005 (was the reviewer biased as a dealer)?   

@melm  It was the author of another forum   Apparently, I thought it was a site review but is the author biased?

@melm As an amateur recording engineer for an orchestra, chamber group and multiple choirs as well as a chorister for 50+ years, I too prefer hearing live music in a good/great venue and can use that as a reference.  Unfortunately, as with bad recordings, I've performed in mediocre venues as well.   

and @metaldetektor  I didn't intend to side track the discussion.   I have a $20K analog front end and have attempted to equal it in CD playback.   Some older CD players have sounded exceptional as they sound more like analog (Kyocera 310/410, haven't heard the 710).   I last used the EAR acute for 15 years.   Seeking a more detailed and clean sound, I ventured into separates about 3 years ago.   I purchased a very well reviewed pair of DACs priced at $5K and $9K which I don't want to mention as I intend to sell them.   The lesser priced one was warm and better than my EAR but lacked refinement/detail with frequency extremes truncated.  The more expensive DAC is superior to the other in all those three ways but is sterile sounding/not warm at all.   Plus, I realized the 1 second buffered delay blurred the sound.  It does sound very good as a steaming DAC but not through the SPDIFs (each has a different sound as well).   Gorgeous design and build though. 

Instead, I have chosen a extreme modified Benchmark 1HDR.  My friend replaced a pair of 50¢ regulators with $50 ones, recapped the power supply with audio not computer grade caps that it comes with, added another custom audio board, etc.  This unit has it all sonically.  My cost $2000.   I still wonder if the Luxman D-03X is a better/compact package than his DAC which requires a transport and digital cable.  Sometimes I feel that a single concept unit is better.