Still breaking in. WordPress lost my first post on this. So let’s try again, although somewhat worse for wear … 🙂

We have a somewhat interesting setup here – but right out of the box, the CDSA sounded pretty good, albeit in a constipated and compressed sort of way.

That is the CDSA on the bottom shelf. It is running, using the Shunyata (P)ython Helix Vx power cord into the never-before-used-as-far-as-we-can-remember analog inputs on the DCC2, connected to each other with an Audio Note SPX interconnect.

[After losing my post a second time, it has become obvious that the word p-y-t-h-o-n causes WordPress fits, as it is also the name of a computer language that WP must be screening out. Stupid BDS.].

All this is run into the Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier, bypassing the DCC2 built-in preamp. The wonderful sound of this amp is probably helping a bit with the breakin blues… 🙂

If I were to describe the sound at this point, it would be that the sound of the CDSA, in this un-optimized setup, is slightly more dynamic and controlled, and a little less smooth, than its bigger brother, although at this point the decay is too aggressive. Still with the purity and truth of the Meitner company-sound. And once again, although the sound of the CDSA appears in this Silly Setup ™ to have quite a bit of detail – any comparision with the competition would leave egg on their components from the perspective of anyone who values Real over Impressive Deluges of Detail.

The CDSA appears to be definitively NOT inferior to the DCC2 SE and CDSD SE combo – and can be thought of as more like the combo minus the built-in Switchman-quality preamp and analog and digital inputs. In a single-box.At half the price.