We spent some time comparing the Emm Labs XDS1 single-box player to the older Emm Labs two-box CDSD transport DCC2 DAC combo. From this comparison we can deduce some differences between the XDS1 and the two-box Emm Labs TSD1 transport and DAC2 DAC (which we spent quite a bit of time with previously and with which we did this comparison with the older pair many times).

Whew!

The one sentence conclusion is that the XDS1 is a evolutionary improvement ‘in kind’ with the improvements the TSD1/DAC2 brought us compared to the CDSD/DCC2 – taking it another step in the direction of blacker backgrounds, control and separation – with unexpectedly, a few additional evolutionary improvements in the bass and dynamics areas.

By evolutionary, I mean you don’t immediately wince when you go from the XDS1 to the CDSD/DCC2 [it is not like going from an ODIN power cord to a ordinary top-of-the-line power cord]. You won’t immediately wince – but you will eventually.

Going from the CDSD/DCC2 to the XDS1 it is much more apparent. There is a greater ease to the presentation: dynamically, details, harmonics – it all makes the other player seem like it is ‘trying hard’ whereas the TSD1 it just happens effortlessly.

Personally, I think these are all related. The greater control over each note of the XDS1 lends itself to having greater ‘slam’, along with the blacker background to be able to pick out individual violins instead of it sounding like just one with a lot of ‘noise that could be other violins’.

We could play the XDS1 louder than the other pair – it had greater resolving capability and whereas the older pair as not able to disambiguate the individual sounds, making it kind of bloby and overwhelming at certain frequencies, the TSD1 sounded just fine. All the instruments could be heard correctly so at the higher volume, it just sounded louder [i.e. the slightly confused rendering of the notes was always there in the older pair, they just didn’t overwhelm us with their unpleasantness until the volume was turned way up].

The UNconfused rendering of the notes of the XDS1, the significantly enhanced control over the notes, the deeper, more round and 3-dimensional bass, the blacker background, made a more immediate and significant impact than the TSD1/DAC2 did over the older CDSD/DCC2 – lending us to conclude that the XDS1 is at least one-step-beyond the TSD1/DAC2 pair.

And now I want to talk about the more psychological aspects of the sound of the XDS1. This is the most fun part for me – both to experience (!) and to write about. But it is also sad because it takes a $25K player [as well as a decent system. This system is quite good – but its optimization is still an in-progress thing] to get to this state-of-mind I am going to TRY to describe.

When you first get the XDS1, it takes some amount of time of concentrated listening [for me] but eventually I got to this space where it I was feeling so much joy listening to one track after the next, one CD after the next. I think a lot of it was because I could just relax ‘in-between the notes’. The awesomely deep black background [without attenuating detail. This is important. This is different than most other ‘blacker backgrounds’ and seems most similar to the Walker Turntable black. But it is even blacker.] combined with resolving capability that we really do not associate with digital players, combined with the control to make the notes do what they the music says they should do and the dynamic capability to make it all seem easy resulted in….

.. an ability to relax and ‘Trust the Music’.

.. to let the music wrap all these strands of melodies around and around you as you listen…

.. picking this melody or that instrument to follow or focus on … but the others are still there(!), doing their thing, not competing with each other, but complementing each other

.. to marvel at the wonderfully rich complexity and beauty of the notes down to the smallest aspect of each note and how it fits into its strand of the melody

.. how it becomes an almost tactile thing – an almost physical experience… ‘touching the music and being touched by it’

Anyway, I had these experiences with the TSD1/DAC2 on a almost perfectly optimized system [Coltrane/Ongaku/ODIN and sometimes some PRIME (which additionally allowed us to experience decays of amazing beauty)]. Now the XDS1 is allowing me to have them on a less optimized system [Audio Note speakers|Kegon Balanced|DAC2 Preamp|ODIN|Valhalla|AcroLink].

Already I am an addict. Pursuing these experiences is about half of what I devote my personal system ‘I Really Want That’ energies to.

[The other half is more amorphous right now – in the direction of a purer Audio Note approach combined with big open well-designed horn speakers. Yeah, amorphous because we don’t got no horn speakers here (and the ones that we did are moving in a direction untenable to us).]

Ergo, almost all my personal audio desire/passion/addiction is for these systems fronted by the newest Emm Labs gear and the high quality systems that are able to do what I want them to do – to provide these kinds of experiences.

Jeez, and I told Neli this was going to be a short write up. 🙂