The Emm Labs TSD1 plays both CDs and SACDs and works with the DAC2 to create the ultimate digital front end. Hold on to your hats – if the rest of the system is up to the task, there will be music like nothing ever heard outside of a studio or concert hall.

Compared to the CDSD with the DCC2, the TSD1 with the DAC2 has a much quieter background and is able to render the subtleties of music unlike anything heard before outside of LP and reel-to-reel playback. Specifically this refers to very fine detail and the ability to keep all the details separate from each other, so they are not presented in a big mushy mess like other players almost unfailingly do. This brings out much more of the ‘musicality’ of the music – i.e. those fine details, chained together, are as musical as the melody itself.