CES 2012 – IsoMike, EMM Labs
Ray Kimber’s IsoMike room featured Sony SSAR1 speakers driven by Pass Labs amps with EmmLabs digital as sources.
Didn’t really spend much time listening here – perhaps Neli will have something to say.
We also went and checked out their static display, where we listened to headphones plugged into the Emm Labs PRE2 preamp. Neli and Emm Labs’ Shahin were more impressed than I was. Me? I do not think headphones turn me on – the sound being thin and with the instruments playing in my head – but YMMV.
I need to do a report on our PRE2 sometime soon – this solid-state preamp is unlike any other solid-state preamp – the purity of the harmonics makes a tube amp unnecessary, and one might say redundant. It really sounds superbly superb on/with solid-state amps.
The IsoMike room itself is impressive, and black… should photograph the mice-like maze of curtains one goes through to get into this room. Reminds me of Halloween parties when I was a youngster. 😉
The Sony SSAR1 loudspeaker, which is used every year here form the last few years
The Sony SSAR1 loudspeaker
The Meitner MA-1 DAC and EMM Labs DAC 8
The EMM Labs XDS1 CD / SACD player
The EMM Labs PRE2 linestage preamplifier
The Pass Labs X350.5 amplifier with purple guardian
The Pass Labs X350.5 amplifier with purple guardian from above
The Emm Labs PRE2 linestage with headphones sitting on top
The Emm Labs TSD1 transport and DAC2 DAC
The new Meitner MA-2 CD+ CD / SACD player
The new Meitner MA-2 CD+ CD / SACD player
The new Meitner MA-2 CD+ CD / SACD player back panel
Ray Kimber in a very phosphorescent coat – he went into the adjoining room and just turned out the light… and pop! – in any kind of situation without much light, this coat just shines. A person could get blinded 😉
Manipulating the playlist with an iPad / tablet
EMM Labs’ Shain looks on as Neli listens through the headphones to the PRE2 preamp.
The back panel of the Emm Labs PRE2 with theb headphones plugged in to the audio outputs
Hi Mike,
I have a question concerning your comment about the EMM Pre2. More specifically, the part about a tube amp being unnecessary or redundant. Are you suggesting that using the Pre2 with a tube amp (in my case a SET) may not be a good idea, or too much of a good thing? Given that I am considering the Pre2, your comment caught my attention. Given my interest, I am very much looking forward to your report on the Pre2!
By the way great blog and great pics. I thoroughly enjoy visiting your site.
Michel
Hi Michel,
Thanks.
First, no it would not be ‘too much of a good thing’. It is not THAT kind of sound.
We have the PRE2, and have had the PRE2, on SET tube amps, and is hard to hear the PRE2 at all – whereas on a solid state amp, for example the big Edge Reference amps, it transformed what is a musical but not completely involving amp into something that rivals the top tube amps in involvement.
There are other solid-state preamps that try to do this same thing. Accuphase and Burmester, for example, but both are much more veiled. I am not familiar enough with the top Boulder and FM Acoustics preamps to judge.
It is this musicality, and true harmonics, without veiling the sound, keeping all the detail and all the resolution that is present in the source, that is the holy grail for solid-state preamps, I think, and the PRE2 – very similar in many ways to their digital products – does a really good job at it.
Hope this helps!
Take care,
-Mike
Have you heard the Meitner MA-1? Any comments on it? I’m curious of how it compares to the EMM DAC2X which appears to have the exact same specs but at twice the price of the Meitner.
Hello Mike and Neli,
Just wondering if you had the chance to hear the new EMM ‘X’ separates, and if so how they compare to the single box XDS1? Always enjoy and learn from reading your blog!
Thanks,
Tom
Hi Three Quid,
We’ve heard the MA-1 [and it sounded as one might expect – good but with less resolution and subtleties compared to their more expensive Emm Labs brand components] but not in a controlled environment. I thought we were going to get one last April – but through a little husband-wife misunderstanding we did not get to hear it here. Oops.
We’ll post a link here to our review when we do get one and get to hear it a bit more.
Take care,
-Mike
Hi Tom,
Not yet.
And we are not going to be showing at RMAF this year [we’ve shown every year until this year – but it just is not as much fun since we lost our large room on the 9th floor] which is when we usually get to try out new Emm Labs gear that the wonderful people at Emm let us play with (aka exhibit) at the show.
We have been talking here a lot lately about selling our demo XDS1 and getting the X separates – so it is just a matter of time. 🙂
[and a note to Emm Labs PRE-2 preamp owners: the PRE2 really benefits from better powercords – being much more sensitive to quality PCs, we think, than the players. Moving from Elrod’s Statement Silver to Statement Gold made a huge difference (yes, this says something about the relative quality of the power cords as well). We’ve had a huge variety of PCs on this pre, but for some reason never heard two of them back-to-back before. Doh!]
Take care,
-Mike