Emm Labs

Anyone had any experience with the Emm Labs CDSD/ DCC2 combo. Read reviews and suppose to be a great player, better than DCS stack. Any info greatful.
Thanks

 

I have head the EMM Labs on loan the whole past week. It is a very good sounding player if a little bit bass light. The inbuild pre is really excellent. The build quality is only medicore though (for the price).

Previously, I have had a chance to compare head-to-head, in my friend's system EMM DCC2 + CDSD vs dCS Verdi LaScala / Elgar Plus and to my ears, the latest dCS stuff outperformed EMM on Redbook CD.

Obviously, my friend went with dCS stack.

Note #1. I didn't have a chance to compare their SACD performance - I have no software, and do not really care about SACD.

Note #2. I have heard that older dCS stuff is nowhere near as goog as DSD upsampling Verdi La Scala, so my expirience and an expirience of other ZeroGainers that tried older dCS stuff may differ.

Note #3. dCS stack was 50% more expensive.

Note #4. dCS had better build quality and feel.

Note #5. You can further improove dCS performance with an external Verona master clock (my friend eventually bought Verona too).

Too be fair, I have to admit that I have another friend, that bought EMM Labs gear over dCS stack. He uses no preamp though, so my understanding is that it was becouse the EMM Labs inbuild pre is better than the digital one found in Elgar Plus.

 

Did you compare with wadia, esoteric or audio synthesis?

 

The DCS gear NEEDS a pre IMO to make it work
The EMM has transport reliability issues I believe, red book performance is not speacial, and I find it a-musical. has a great US following though.
There's one on hifi for sale @£6k

 

I belive the EMM transport reliability issues have been solved in a current production models by replacing the trasport mechanism. I belive the transport replacement took place at the same time the USB input was added at the back of CDSD, so If anything, look for a model with USB.

The CDSD I have had on loan worked OK.