should everyone just order emm?

I have a hard time believing anyone would be less than thrilled with Meitner Emm Labs gear. Of course it sounds amazing with SACD, but you know what?
The redbook playback is also outrageous. You won't believe it 'til you hear it.
Buy it for the redbook playback and take the SACD playback as a bonus.

>>what if emm labs comes out with a one-box cdp in a year or two?<<

A one box cdp? Is the number of boxes an issue? Would you *prefer* a one box CDP and fear buyer's remorse if you bought separates? Me? Unless simply reducing the number of boxes to one somehow represented a step up in sound quality, which doesn't seem likely, I would still be quite satisfied with separates.

>>how is the build quality?<<

Excellent.

>>what if you have service issues?<<

Had a service issue -- service was thorough and prompt.

>>what if emm labs disappears in a year or two?<<

Emm Labs has been around for awhile and looks to be here to stay. But, I have Proceed Gear, which was made by Levinson -- Proceed is long gone. It happens. Unless you go with a behemoth like Sony, you should always factor in the risk that the company you buy from *could* someday fold up -- that's the risk at this end of the biz. You either take that risk to get great sound or you avoid it by buying from a behemoth.

>>what if someone mods a sony dvd player and it sounds astonishingly close to a meitner?<<

Many have tried and failed. Again, in this hobby, progress happens. Someday, something is going to best the Meitner gear, or at least someone will claim it does. That's life. There's nothing you can buy in audio that is guaranteed to stay on the top of the pile forever.

>>j.atkinson of stereophile has heard a ton of systems, but still relaxes to his ml-30.6/31.5 cdp, which he cheerily admits is not the cat's meow anymore.<<

Perfect example. Others have come along to best his ML gear, some of it for far less money, but he's still happy with his gear. That's a sane attitude in this hobby.

>>oh, and i am certainly less than thrilled with buying "pre-production or 1st generation" audio.<<

Is someone pressuring you to buy Meitner gear? If you want to wait until it goes through several production runs, that's your perogative -- BUT -- you can say that about just about anything in audio. If you're worried about these types of issues, you can alleviate them by buying from large established companies like Sony, but which of their CDP's would you buy? Their new flagship is the first incarnation of that particular model and you might want to read up on their service issues, but you can be sure they will be around. Frankly, it sounds like the price of the Meitner gear is freaking you out a little and this is causing you to want a lot of assurance for your money. My experience has been that when buying audio gear at this level, some risk is involved, but I took that risk when buying my Meitner gear and I would take it again in a heartbeat to get sound quality at this level. I'm confident Meitner
will be around, I'm impressed with their service -- best I've had -- and I'm not willing to wait to see if someone can top it, who knows how long that will take? How long will *that* company have been around? What assurance will I have that it will be around forever? How long will it stay on top of the pile? How many production runs should I wait? Etc. etc. etc. I'd rather be enjoying my Meitner gear in the present. The sound quality is amazing. I never thought I could be this happy with redbook CD's and the SACD playback is just a great bonus.

>>Are they going to say, "I was an idiot to sell my old player for such a low price, then spend way more to get this new one, and it's just not that much better than the old one!!"<<

Inside this piece of bad logic is a good point and that is that you should always take someone's opinion as a starting point in your research. Other than that, there is a flawed presumption that no one is ever happier with the new piece of equipment, they just lie about it, which probably does happen,
but if used as a *presumption* -- like most presumptions -- it leads to the notion that everyone who doesn't say what Golden Ears has predetermined is the right answer, is failing to tell you the truth. However, his argument is done in by the fact that all of us know that we *have* upgraded and *have* been legitimately happier with the new piece -- that's why the presumption is flawed. Unless you want to believe that everyone who has ever upgraded and failed to tell you they were foolish for doing so is a liar. Does that make any sense?

The simple fact is -- *EARLY ADOPTERS* of any technoology will always pay a premium to be first in line. Emm Labs gear *is* expensive, but you have to understand the price point in which they are competing. Emm Labs isn't alone at this price point. Linn, Burmeister, and several other digital solutions are available at that price point -- AND HIGHER.

At it's PRICE POINT, Emm Labs offers excellent value. Does it offer value compared to players that might get you 75% of the way there for less money?
I doubt Emm Labs owners are asking themselves that question.

If you don't want to be an early adopter, are willing stick with what you have, want to wait until the technology is available at a lower price -- no problem.
Soothing yourself with the notion that all those raving about the equipment are liars is understandable on a human level, but ain't going to wash on a logical one.

I still own my two former digital front ends, they are in other systems around the house -- I gave one of them, a Sony SCD XA777ES, to my brother for his birthday. To my ears, the redbook CD playback of the Emm Labs is superior -- to the SACD playback of the Sony player -- and I used to be thrilled with the SACD playback of the Sony. I cannot believe I have a player that makes redbook CD's sound this good.

Since I have around 1,500 CD's -- getting this much enjoyment out of them is worth the expenditure. Again -- the SACD playback is even better, but I take the SACD playback as a bonus.

I am using the modified Phillips transport, but I believe Emm Labs has now released their own transport.

Somebody already posted a review of a mod he had done on his Emm Labs gear with verbage just like you describe. Check the archives.

>>they'll all be sad that they didn't wait for the EMM labs DAC<<

This is pretty wild speculation. It posits a mythical sony SACD player buyer who, if he/she just didn't spend the money on that Sony player, would be buying the Emm Labs gear, but somehow cannot upgrade because the Sony purchase doomed him/her to this sad dead end on the digital evolutionary ladder. And, not just *some* of them, but *ALL* will be sad that they didn't wait. It also posits an audio universerse where upgrading is an odd occurence. An alternate universe, no doubt. My guess would be that some of those Sony SACD buyers are still happily spinning their silver discs, others have been through several players since then, along with different speakers, amplifiers, pre-amps, and cables, and plenty of them are now happily upgrading to Emm Labs gear and spreading the word. I don't know -- just makes more sense than the other scenario, which goes to show there are many ways to spin one's wheels.

>

If the people who own the equipment in question are not to be believed because they will defend their purchase, this means we can trust neither the owners of Emm Labs nor the owners of the modified Denon player. If people fail to tell you when they make unfortunate purchases, this could also include people who purchased a modified DVD player for their digital front end or traded in their Emm Labs gear for said gear. I think we need to be careful where we shoot -- the bounce-back will getcha every time. So, if no one can be trusted what does that mean? It means we all have to do our own listening and choose the products that sound best to us. One person's syrup may not work for everyone and what looks like a risk to some will look like a safe bet to others. What looks like a trend could be a trend, but it could also be a bunch of people expressing joy and spreading good news. And, speaking of trends, I have noticed another trend. Take a low-end piece of gear, like a DVD player or home theater receiver, swap out a few parts and claim it beats gear costing 10 to 20 times as much. Speaking of risk, what do you think you can get for a used Denon DVD player with $3,000 worth of mods? How many production runs have there been? Who is going to fix your modded Denon if it breaks after a year or two? See, everything is relative. But, my experience has been that I would rather have the money back that I spent on the lower cost players I bought one the way to the Emm Labs gear.