The current SOTA SACD player
Audio Feil, I would like to say I'm in no way affilated with EMM or Jonathan Tinn other than I own EMM gear which I purchased from another dealer and I had the unit upgraded through Jonathan. Yes, the difference I immediately heard in sound between the non-SE version and the SE version of the EMM DAC struck me as profound and special. This is only my opinion, nothing more or less but it is honest and sincere. Someone else might hear the same difference and feel differently. That is subjective. "wow"... How sad it is IMO that the only contribution to this thread from others is to poke fun with sarcasm. Audiofeil, I had to work last night. The Author, Tom |
Hello Ecka, This is a link to a more technical explanation of the signature upgrade to both the DAC and transport. http://www.emmlabs.com/html/press/release.html May I suggest getting in touch with Jonathan Tinn for more information. Ecka, I think it depends on what vintage of the CDSD you have if a SE" upgrade is warranted. I bought mine originally in July of 05. It was one of the first ones with the brushed aluminum face plate and no clear coat. It had the new transport and the port in the back for future software upgrades. Not quite a year thereafter I had to send it to Andreas Koch for a problem I was having with drop outs on some of my disc. When it was there he did all updates to bring it up to the current SE" version. As far as I know, he did a software update and he also updated the power supply to my unit. It came back sounding noticeably better! A short time later I sent in my DAC for SE" upgrade. I'm elated to report that IMO the SE" upgrade is NOT subtle. Within all of 3 seconds I knew this was special. First I heard a much more realistic rendering of texture of tone that made all instruments just sound that more vibrant of their each own individual character. Also, immediately noticeably was the sound space, it was much wider and deeper. Resolution of low level detail was just fantastic as I heard things I never heard before. Dynamic shading is now more startling, it digs deeper in the lows and high end extension is improved as well. It is more detailed and yet at the same time more relaxed in the presentation which sounds more natural and less electronic in nature. It got better with break in for awhile then leveled off in improvements for quite sometime. Then after 3 months or so I got yet another improvement concerning bass definition and extension. Needless to say I'm thrilled with the SE" upgrade to the EMM duo. Overall it just pulls me into the music and the musicians intent more than ever before. Whatever you decide I wish you well and hope you find what you are looking for. All the best, Tom |
Thanks for the feedback so far. Tom, if I may ask, what exactly is the CDSD upgrade all about, because, if I have understood previous Audiogon posts correctly it semed to be mainly a label change to maintain some kind of model uniformity. Would you please elaborate on some of the sonic improvements that you feel the upgrade has resulted in. Thanks again |
Ecka, After doing some research, I ordered the APL NW0-2.5 which is based on the Esoteric VRDS-NEO transport. I'll post my impressions when I receive my unit. In the meantime, you can get some information about it and impressions of some NWO owners at the following links: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1157456868&read&keyw&zzapl+nwo2+5 http://www.aplhifi.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=558 Best Regards, John |
I've been wow'ed by and now own a 2-channel, 2-box solution, the Esoteric P-03 and D-03 combination running in Dual XLR AES/EBU configuration; gives pure DSD for SACDs and lots of other options. Word clock in DAC can be used to slave the P-03 transport.... I've heard alot of great players over the last 2 years. The P-03 and D-03 performance is humbling. See Robert Harley's pre-review in The Perfect Vision together with recent reviews on 6moons and Soundstage. |
