EMM Labs CDSA Photos
Well, here we are.
We actually got the player two days ago, but since Mike & Neli BOTH wanted to be at the unveiling, and we being quite busy lately, it took us until this afternoon to unwrap the player and connect it into the system….
First impressions, at the 5 minute mark, are quite favorable.
Same nice badge as its bigger brothers CDSD SE and DCC2 SE
Front panel comes covered with a blue plastic protector….
We took the protector off. Its easier to push the buttons and open the tray that way….
There is a new remote, with larger buttons. The buttons are seriously back-lit (no photo, oops) and larger than the previous remote, which is ncie for those of us who find it hard to read 6 pt font text.
The rear of the remote. Nice heft, good feel in the hands…
The rear panel of the CDSA.
A larger photo of the rear panel of the CDSA. Much less going on than the DCC2 – no preamp, no connectors to communicate with the CDSD transport….
The push buttons are now metal instead of plastic, and are firmer, and have a shorter ‘throw’ to them.
I own the full dCS rig: VERDI/ELGER/PURCELL/VERONA and keep reading about the EMM LABS CDSA. Has anyone put the two machines side by side? Is the EMM labs going to beat something that cost approximately six times as much. Advice, thoughts, thanks!
I own the full dCS rig: VERDI/ELGER/PURCELL/VERONA and keep reading about the EMM LABS CDSA. Has anyone put the two machines side by side? Is the EMM labs going to beat something that cost approximately six times as much. Advice, thoughts, thanks!
Hi Paul,
Been thinking about how to answer this…
First, no we haven’t heard them side by side. But there is a ‘company sound’ to both players. If I were to try and put it into word, it might be:
dCS: accuracy and competance
EMMLabs: realism and transparency.
The two brands are certainly not all that far from each other in the overall panaply of CD players…
Although dCS is moving steadily towards sounding more alive, and with more harmonics over the last few years – and I am not sure I’ve heard their latest –
…the situation seems to me to be this:
The difference between $10K and $60K speackers is significant. Amps also, but less so. Pre amps even less than that. And CD players the least of them all.
It really comes down to ‘flavor’ – not which is ‘best’.
You want transparency and purity and a real nagging feeling that makes you keep comparing the sound to what it would sound like in reality… then go with EMM Labs.
You want something that communiates the emotion more than anything else… go with Audio Aero.
You want something between those two, that has the best of both worlds, go with Audio Note.
You want something that extracts every last possible detail – yet is still at least somewhat musical – – go with Esoteric.
You want something that extracts every last detail – and is happy being not at all musical – go with Wadia (Yes, yes I know – they are working on changing their company sound).
And dCS? Depends on what filter you use 🙂
Just kidding.
You want something very configurable, with lots of different sounds – but iwth very little sound of its own, the go with dCS… What do you think? Does this capture their ‘essence’?
It’s all about flavors…
Thanks,
Mike.
Please, not for publishing—I ran across your website on the intenet and thought that I’d write. My experience tells me that you will have a long breakin to get to what the CDSA-SE can ultimately sound like […] Best Regards, S. Brown
Hi,
Although you said you did not want your comment on the web you posted it in the blog – which is on the web. So I removed the body of it, as you wished, even though I saw nothing controversial in your post.
We have not compared the big boy Esoterics in our systems here – but it is clear that of the solid state brand you mention, modded Wadia, Esoteric and Emmlabs, Emm Labs sounds the most like music. The other two brands seem to go for technical competance, whereas Emm Labs seems to go for both, trying to keep raising the bar in both musicality and technical slight-of-hand. In striking this perfect balance, it is not therefore the most musical player in the world (go with tubes for that) nor the most technical (extracting every last detail and dynamics in the bass).
For my money, I like everything – and it is fun to indulge in one extreme or the other – but it is not close to the truth, nor is the enjoyment long lasting.
That said, there is a convergence going on here and the players are all converging on this balancing act between technical and musicality, plasing the mind as well as the heart – and from both the tube and solid-state camps.
People may think me crazy(er) but the new Audio Aero transport seemed to me to add more technical capability – pushing this very musical player towards the center. The CDSA seemed to me to make the DCC2/ CDSD more technical sounding as well, while keeping its level of musicality.I know DCS moves each release towards musicality, away froim the extremes of the technical sounding wasteland, etc. etc. etc.
I see these brands as little inch worms, slowing worming their way back and forth, but ever forward, towards the sound of the real.
The CDSA though, has just broken through to a whole new level for solid-state players – and at a ‘reasonable’ price point, amazingly enough. It is like the little inch worm got hold of an expresso or something.
But in the end – it is up to your ears and, also, how you want to muck with yoru system today – if change helps you enjoy the system more for a few months, then nothing wrong with that. You might want to look at upgrading that SPM cable first though – a cable we are very familiar with, BTW.
Oh, we have had our CDSA for quite a while… you are right about the air/decay/textture growing over time – we’ve had ours over 2000 hours, and the sound is still getting more and more integrated into a whole cloth. Based on the CDSD/DC2, I think thisis the area that will see the most improvment oiver the next few months.
Thanks for your post,
Mike.