Linn Ikemi vs. Electro. EMC1 vs. 508.24

A no brainer. 508 might be the best bargain in audio. Only three players I have heard come close. The Accuphase 75V and the big Linn rig at $12000. I also own the Marantz flagship $7500 sacd bad boy but the Meridian stays on the equipment rack for redbook. What does that tell you? And, by the way, when I went head to head against the Accuphase at my dealer in NYC I had to unplug the Meridian, lug it in the cold to the shop, turn it back on and play it against the Accuphase which had been warmed up for months. STILL the Meridian sounded so close that I kept it and kept my wallet. In sound difference I would say that the Accuphase warmed up remember was silky smooth, but didn't have the jump factor of the Meridian. And less bass too. The sound was concentrated on a very very fine midrange. But we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands more here. And the Meridian was cold. Let Electrocompaniet stay on the Brit mags and Stereophile Class A list for 7 years running and we'll talk. Otherwise, buyer beware. There are as many for sale it seems as have sold since a nice guy I buy cables from in upstate NY carries it mailorder and tells me that no one who has bought from him has kept it more than a year. He has made a good bit of money in trade ins. nuf said.

You've got an all Europe system. Check out Whathifi or HifiNews. Both had great reviews of Meridian. In fact, Meridian made one of the 5 best systems in HiFiNews. They are lukewarm on the EMC in all the European rags except the couple reviews posted on the Electo site. And that was a different machine, I think it was true dual mono with two power plugs and not the single one sold in USA. And listen first by auditioning. There is a thread hear on why so many EMCs for sale, read it and be careful.

A no brainer. 508 might be the best bargain in audio. Only three players I have heard come close. The Accuphase 75V and the big Linn rig at $12000. I also own the Marantz flagship $7500 sacd bad boy but the Meridian stays on the equipment rack for redbook. What does that tell you? And, by the way, when I went head to head against the Accuphase at my dealer in NYC I had to unplug the Meridian, lug it in the cold to the shop, turn it back on and play it against the Accuphase which had been warmed up for months. STILL the Meridian sounded so close that I kept it and kept my wallet. In sound difference I would say that the Accuphase warmed up remember was silky smooth, but didn't have the jump factor of the Meridian. And less bass too. The sound was concentrated on a very very fine midrange. But we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands more here. And the Meridian was cold. Let Electrocompaniet stay on the Brit mags and Stereophile Class A list for 7 years running and we'll talk. Otherwise, buyer beware. There are as many for sale it seems as have sold since a nice guy I buy cables from in upstate NY carries it mailorder and tells me that no one who has bought from him has kept it more than a year. He has made a good bit of money in trade ins. nuf said.

You are on crack...please only post your opinions once...not multiple times. It seems that you have an agenda.

The EMC1 is the best player in this bunch. The reason so many are for sale (5 at this time) is due to the fact that there is a new version coming soon. The new version will have a 192 Dac.

The EMC1 is the best digital I have ever heard with perhaps the exception of the DCS and other MEGABUCK 24-192 KHZ DACs.
If you can get this player for under 2.5K it is a steal. Buy the player than decide if you want to upgrade it for 1-1.5K when the upgrade kit is made available.

The other two players are fine kit but to my ears the EMC1 is an outstanding player and it looks very cool to boot.

Thanks a lot Celery, well said.
The Meridian sounded like an old CD player (and it is) compared to the EMC-1.