EMMLabs CDSA SE CD/SACD Reference CD Player

Intro

Though I have no formal degree in the matter, I fashion myself as an economist. Knowledge of trade, monetary / fiscal policy, productivity and employment all factor into my day job. While current events are of material and immediate concern, sometimes I like to ponder the big picture in the evolution of economies.

My area of greatest interest is the US of A. Merely fifty years ago, the US was a country that, from an economic perspective, was an industrial powerhouse, manufacturing all types of goods and materials. The steel industry, home electronics, textiles, ceramics, and a myriad other categories of items which previously dominated our domestic economy have, at this time, altogether evaporated from our nation’s output. The USA is an importer of these goods, having since outsourced production of them to nations that offer lower costs in exchange for the intellectual capital that the USA developed and exports to less advanced economies. A great example of this is Apple; they design the iPod and iPhone in California, and then outsource its production to Southeast Asia. This is the evolution that all open economies will undergo, coming to rely on R&D, engineering acumen, and design superiority in lieu of low value-added manufacturing. So, for mature capitalist economies, its out with the brawn, and in with the brain.

So what has this to do with audio? Plenty, dear reader, plenty. In audio, for years upon years we aficionados have implicitly equated weight with quality, and brawn as a precursor to performance. And though speakers have a good reason for holding true to this formula (weight = non-resonance = improved staging, detail and dynamics), electronics are slowly slaying this sacred cow of brawn-based performance. Digital amplifiers, weighing in at a fraction of their solid-state contemporaries, are quickly gaining acceptance in the marketplace as performance improves by leaps and bounds. Manufacturers of digital equipment are finding advanced chipsets and decoding algorithms as the determining factors behind performance, exceeding the influence made by ½” thick chassis, monstrous power supplies, and split-function multi-box affairs littering one’s equipment rack.

EMM Labs, hardly a newcomer to the digital world, is obviously a company built on the ‘brains over brawn’ paradigm (ironic to my introductory paragraph, EMM Labs is a Canadian company). Their flagship one-box player, the CDSA, was sent to me after a few months of scheduling difficulties. After such a wait, it likely pains them not that they’ll not be seeing this particular unit again.

Background & Technical Info

If you’re about to invest $10 large into an audio product, it behooves you to research the company behind the product. After all, you wouldn’t buy a car if you thought the company might go belly up and leave you stranded for spare parts & service. EMM Labs has a pedigree that rivals Wilson, Krell and other high-end heavyweights, having been in business making state-of-the-art digital processors and players since 1998. The man behind the company, Ed Meitner, has been doing so considerably longer. Turns out Ed Meitner is so well regarded in industry circles, that heavyweights like Sony & Philips turned to him for assistance in getting SACD off the drawing board and into action. EMM Labs equipment is used almost exclusively in the digital mastering of SACD’s, and the list of studios and musicians who use EMM Labs products is thoroughly impressive; as they say, you cannot buy publicity like that.

Indeed, it’s probably best to consider EMM Labs a company oriented to professional / studio users that just happens to build a few products for the audiophile community.

So what is it that makes EMM Labs stuff so special and well regarded? It’s the intellectual capital: the decoding algorithms, named aptly the Meitner Digital Audio Translator (MDAT). The CDSA decodes Redbook CD’s at twice the rate of SACD’s, upsampling 44.1kHz to 5.6448MHz. But evidently it’s more than that. To quote from the EMM Labs website:

Rather than address the digital signal as a series of sine waves—as is standard convention—the MDAT-equipped CDSA SE processes (and upsamples CD audio to DSD for conversion to analog) by dynamically adapting to the transient nature of the musical signal. In this way, the CDSA SE is utterly unique and singularly able to preserve the phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of the original signal.

Now, I’m a bright guy and I stay at a Holiday Inn Express some nights, but I’ll be damned if I know what that upsampling or MDAT is going to do by looking over the specs, as opposed to a power amplifier, where if one examines the power supply, one can quickly ascertain how its going to behave. Listening will have to suffice (as if measurements could ever?!?).

To push the envelope even further, the CDSA employs discrete dual differential DAC’s, using EMM Labs proprietary conversion circuitry. The circuit boards are a composite laminate with uber-smooth copper traces, and purer signal paths leads to purer sound, as I’ve always found with interconnects. The chassis (which I’ll touch on below) is very stiff and resistant to flexing or vibration, and the inside of the player looks more at home in the semiconductor labs of Intel than anything I’ve encountered in a high-end component.

First Impressions

Though well packed in double boxes, I was initially struck by how light the shipping container felt. Those impressions were only furthered as box after box was stripped away, and I was left staring at the CDSA. The unit cannot go much more than 15 pounds (26.5lb per EMM Labs. –Ed), and its exterior is uneventful, consisting of a simple brushed aluminum face with a black body. While the buttons on the faceplate that operate the unit are small and non-descript, they contrast starkly with the size 50 font, ostentatious 1960s-Star-Trek-era digital display of track and time information (the display can be turned off, thankfully). On the back, in addition to the typical RCA and XLR outputs, the unit offered digital outputs (alas, no digital inputs), as well as a voltage output controller, so that one doesn’t overdrive their preamp. Preamps sound best attenuating the signal as little as possible, so reducing the voltage output usually allows one to crank the volume knob a bit more. Good thinking EMM!

The transport itself is as thin as I’ve ever encountered. Coming off using the Esoteric XO-1 D2 and having the Wadia 861SE on hand, I must say I found it out of place in a mega-player. The draw seemed more befitting of a $1k Sony than a $10k uber-player. To give you an idea of usability, my dear darling wife is a clumsy sort who spills when pouring out of the milk carton; whereas I’d have no reservation of her dropping a disc into the XO-1 D2, I would never ask her to put one into the EMM, for fear it could easily go in cockeyed. The drawer is not sculpted metal or aluminum, but looks to be a simply plastic, and hardly awe-inspiring. Now, the flip side to this is that the transport mechanism is an off-the-shelf version from Philips, meaning that if service is required, it’s not some proprietary mechanism that cannot be serviced. Case in point: Accuphase doesn’t have enough replacement parts for its DP-75V.

That said, I’m terribly spoiled by the Herculean build quality of the Teac VRDS transport used in the XO-1 and 861SE, and would’ve loved to see it in the EMM, if only for my piece of mind. Any differences I cite in the following “Comparison” section of this review could very well be a function of the transport used, but it’s truly impossible to know for sure given so many other variables. I brought this matter to the attention of EMM Labs, and while they acknowledged the resultant loss of ergonomics and aesthetics when compared to a metal tray / VRDS-version, they maintained that the sonic benefits of the metal transports do not justify the cost. The final performance is all in the software / algorithms; their position, as alluded to in my introduction, is that it’s the brains and not the brawns that matter with digital audio reproduction.

The remote control is quite intuitive and plain Jane; it takes a few seconds for the unit to execute the command, a minor annoyance one easily gets accustomed to (note: the remote has a phase switch–hip hip hooray!). What was curious was that when a button on the remote is pressed, the entire remote light up glowing stark blue, reminding me as if I were holding a light-saber about to do battle with Darth Vader. For such a simple command as pressing a button, the remote acts like you’re doing something special.

Which, when you get right down to it, it is.

Listening Impressions

I don’t normally publish impressions of a component that has no burn-in, as I find burn-in to be a valid and, in some cases, significant influence on the performance. But I was immediately struck by the incredible resolving capabilities of the CDSA. Quite simply, I was (get your cliché’s ready) hearing a familiar piece of music for the first time, and immediately knew I had just hooked up a very special player in the EMM Labs.

One of my favorite CDs, Flotation Toy Warning’s Bluffers Guide from the Flight Deck, is so horribly mastered that I will never use it in my duties as a reviewer, but I love the music, so it gets frequent playtime in my rig. So, thinking that 1st day wasn’t for serious evaluations, I threw in Flotation Toy Warning’s disc and, for the first time, heard a soundstage on the playback. Granted, it still wasn’t a well-defined stage ala Jack Johnson’s releases, but it was far better than I ever heard before, thinking that the stage on this CD was never to improve beyond a jumbled puzzle. Further, I was picking up low-level details that were deeply buried in the mix (as this CD has myriad overdubs), giving an indication of the remarkable resolving capabilities of the CDSA.

The second CD, the Beatles’ Love, was also interesting, but for anecdotal reasons. My wife, dear as she is, seldom demonstrates any interest in my audiophile pursuits, forced to listen to my stereo from another room. But while Love was spinning, she came into the room in a half-dance, saying, “Be sure to bring this CD on holiday with us.” When I asked her why she was now demonstrating interest in this music, she replied simply, “Something sounds much better.” She didn’t know it, but she was talking about the CDSA.

Another watershed moment came once I got back from vacation; I had thrown in the poorly-recorded disc I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo, and was two rooms away, taking a leak. And I noticed that two rooms away, it sounded good. I was hearing two separate horn lines on the track “Mr. Tough” for the first time. And this was from two rooms away! Ever hear the old adage that one should listen to their system from another room to tell if it’s realistic? It’s absolutely true, and the EMM CDSA made my system far truer to the music, two rooms away, than I had ever heard it.

And I think that this is the first conclusion I drew from the CDSA: I’ve never encountered a player that did more with less. As in, the EMM CDSA delivered more musical satisfaction from less-than-ideal recordings, which most Redbook CD’s are. The EMM CDSA is without question the most resolving player I’ve heard, but it doesn’t do so with any tonal anomalies or tricks (more on this later in my comparison to a discontinued Wadia 861SE). It simply oozes out music in an organic, natural and completely seductive manner, unforced yet startlingly clear in all its glory. Some players might sound musical because of tube warmth or via a deliberate voicing to de-emphasize the treble, which is where digital playback fails miserably compared to analog. The EMM CDSA doesn’t need to do this. This combination of resolution with the sweetest, most natural treble I’ve come across makes the CDSA the most musical and non-digital of CD players I’ve encountered; it’s more analog-like than any digital player I’ve heard—strong words indeed. Vinylphiles will gravitate to the EMM for this reason, and likely never break away from it.

Additionally, the CDSA delivers a stage when one normally cannot be found, but when one is properly recorded on the disc (Low “Time is the Diamond” off of “Trust”), it delivers the most holographic and well-carved out soundstage that I’ve ever heard off of digital playback. Depth and body that I thought my room couldn’t deliver still were foreshortened, but to my surprise, I was finally getting depth! Jack Johnson’s releases are invariably well recorded, and the CDSA would deliver his three-man band with properly sized images, each having its own sense of space and body around the performer, giving me the ability to hear in front, around, and behind the performer. Only the best recordings provide this effect, but it takes world class electronics to bring it home, and the CDSA did it better than anything that’s come before it.

Digital playback typically has little or no trouble with maintaining the pace, rhythm and timing (PRAT) of music. In fact, it is very seldom that one comes across a component that does muck it up; if a component does, its usually a tube piece with an undersized power supply. The CDSA has no problem keeping pace, and as it is eminently musical, it is very easy to get lost in the performance. However, dynamics, close cousin to PRAT, are a tougher nut to crack with the CDSA.

At first, I thought that the CDSA didn’t have the attack and leading edge that music has (as heard on horn lines when listening to James Brown’s “Soul Power” or acoustic guitar on The Ditty Bops “Moon over the Freeway”). But listening carefully and making the appropriate comparisons, I found that it’s the CDSA that best recreates the sound of the recorded instrument. The reason I had trouble deciphering this effect is because of the false etch, the ‘digititis,’ that most every other CD player imparts to the leading edge of transients. The CDSA does away with this etch, leaving the edge but without the distortion, which some mistaken listeners will opine is a subdued transient—but careful listening proves otherwise. To offer an analogy, the effect of the CDSA vs. other players reminds me of the effect of a good power conditioner; initially, one would think the leading edge and top-end are subdued, but then one realizes that the conditioner simply removed noise from the signal.

I’ve already touched on the treble as being sweet, organic, and musical, but if I had to fault the sonics of the CDSA, it’d be at the other frequency extreme. The deep bass is a bit shortened and the musical foundation (which rests upon visceral bass), while not absent, is a bit subdued. I’ve been spoiled with a number of players that deliver this foundation (Wadia, Modwright, Esoteric), and the EMM CDSA doesn’t have the depth of these players, but I will say that it is still highly satisfying in this area, as what it delivers does have plenty of impact, depth and articulation. Is this shortcoming the sonic effect of a lesser transport compared to the Wadia and Esoteric? Or is it the build quality? Or, the power supply?

Really, it could be any of these things, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that it’s the power supply, and here’s why: As it used a Sony platform, the Modwright player was limited to Sony build quality and a flimsy Sony transport, but it delivered this ‘foundation’ more so than the EMM, and I’d reason that it’s because of the substantial outboard power supply that Modwright employed. Also, while I’m not inclined to take a manufacturer’s statements unquestioningly, the statements of EMM Labs on the sonic impact of the transport earlier in this review are entirely consistent with what I found when comparing the CDSA vs. the Modwright, the Wadia, and the Esoteric; the EMM was easily the most resolving, despite the fact that it employed a lesser transport mechanism when compared to the Wadia or Esoteric, again lending credibility to the argument that it’s the software that matters, and that the build quality of the transport is just for ergonomics. All this is brought to light for your education, dear reader, but not because the EMM was unsatisfying in this region. It certainly could rattle the walls and provide plenty of slam, but it’s not a ‘headbanger’ type player the way the Wadia and Esoteric are.

Indeed, over long-term listening, I found the EMM CDSA to be, without question, the most musically satisfying CD player I’ve ever come across. If you have a system that doesn’t invite long listening sessions, or if you’re completely off-put by digital playback, the EMM CDSA is the panacea for what afflicts you.

Comparisons

EMM CDSA vs. Wadia 861SE

I had recently purchased Wadia’s previous-generation 861SE CD player for experimentation and as a reference for my reviewing purposes. The Wadia possessed incredible, tank-like build quality and was a total joy to use from an ergonomic and functional standpoint; while digital inputs proved ahead of its time (but thoroughly welcome), their much touted digital volume control is decidedly improved upon with my Einstein “The Tube” preamp. Once I gave it proper accessories (footers, cables), I was able to remove most of the digital glare and clinical coldness that the player possesses when relying on its stock feet and power cord. However, in comparison to the EMM, the Wadia still exhibited a prominent whitish etch, a coldness of tone that is Exhibit “A” for all those vinylphiles who hate digital.

The EMM had a purity of tone, an organic quality that invited long term listening. Listening to various reference tracks of mine (Tom Waits “Cold Water,” Ween “Mollusk”), I found the Wadia presented the performers in a relatively less three-dimensional manner compared to the EMM, which had far greater image depth, body and space around the performers, displaying each musician as a living event in the context of the performance. Now, the Wadia did have a few advantages over the EMM.

The Wadia had better bass depth and articulation, giving the music a firmer foundation (the same foundation I found so beguiling with the XO-1 D2). Dynamics initially seemed better with the Wadia, with a leading edge that was more pronounced and startling. However, careful listening led me to the conclusion that what the Wadia was presenting was a digital artifact, an etch that one could easily mistake for leading edge (the same way that some people think power conditioners remove the leading edge when in fact the conditioner is simply removing noise from the AC). The EMM never displayed the slightest hint of etch or ‘digitits’, but still conveyed so much of the dynamic envelope that is required to bring music to life in the home environment. Finally, the EMM CDSA distinguished itself as the clear winner in resolving details and extracting every last bit off the disc (which makes me wonder just how necessary the VRDS transport really is?).

The discontinued Wadia 861SE was and still is an excellent player, but even with every possible advantage I could afford it (AC, footers, interconnects), it was outclassed by the stock EMM CDSA.

EMM CDSA vs. Esoteric XO-1 D2

This is the shootout that needed to happen. One could easily argue (as I would) that these two players stand out at the top of the heap in digital playback today, and anyone considering one of the players should definitely audition both. And I don’t mean to sound like I’m hedging on preferences or “which is better,” which is just a nonsensical question in a subjective evaluation of two highly competent audio components. It’d be like asking “which color is better.” It depends on your opinion, and on what you value; do you like the cool, soothing peacefulness of ‘blue’, or do you gravitate to the vibrancy, action and heat of ‘red?’ So let me elaborate a bit using an analogy that audiophiles should be able to relate to: the EMM player is probably the single-ended triode of CD playback, whereas the XO-1 D2 could be the solid-state amp. Which is better depends on how you like your music.

Comparatively speaking, the XO-1 D2 just plain trounces the EMM when it comes to build-quality and ergonomics. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is built like an Esoteric player, and one never questions whether you’re getting value for your money. Beyond that, it becomes far more tit-for-tat. The EMM has better resolving power for getting every last bit of information off the disc, throws a more holographic soundstage, and has a more natural tone and harmonic envelope on complex instruments like pianos and female vocals. The XO-1, however, does better than the EMM when it comes to leading edge, but unlike the Wadia, the XO-1 doesn’t possess the etch that might manifest itself as the leading edge. With the XO-1 D2, it’s the correct leading edge, and even more correct than the CDSA; why this is the case I can only assume is because of the power supply advantages of the XO-1. Also the XO-1 has deeper, more articulate bass, creating that musical foundation that gives music the visceral quality that it has in a live setting.

On the whole, the XO-1 beats the EMM at the frequency extremes, and its slightly sharper leading edge and PRAT make it a player more suited for rock & roll than the EMM.

The differences between the two players are not that great. And like I said, the EMM is probably like a SET amp to the XO-1’s solid-state brute amp. So, what kind of amp do you like? The irony is that for system building, if you own one type of amp, you’d probably be better off buying the digital player that is the opposite of your amp typology. If you own an SET, you’d probably get a more realistic and balanced system if you used the XO-1 (with its better frequency extremes making up for some SET’s shortcomings); if you own a solid-state amplifier, you’d likely be better off with the EMM (as its incredible staging, resolution and organic tone would help address the shortcomings associated with a solid-state amp). Now, I can easily envision people going with the same CD-amp combos (EMM with SET), as it would provide an immensely musical system, displaying all the traits that you chose the amp for in the first place, but those traits would be even more pronounced than before. That’s not to say it’s more right, it’s just more right for you. (For what its worth, the shortcomings of each player can be significantly reduced with proper accessories: e.g. using warm-sounding feet with the XO-1, or networked interconnects with the EMM).

There is no “better” between these two players (unless we’re talking about build quality, which favors the XO1, or affordability, which makes the EMM $6,000 more affordable). Auditioning is highly recommended. But by the same token, you simply cannot go wrong with either. You simply might be a bit happier with the other, but you’ll never miss what you never heard.

Conclusion

I don’t want to gush, so let me start by what I don’t like. The ergonomics of the EMM Labs CDSA are not befitting a $10k player, and the transport is not at all inviting for audiophiles who are ‘all-thumbs.’ Indeed, I could well imagine some readers not buying the EMM CDSA because they’re worried they might damage it while loading discs. Also, the user interface is hardly ideal: press a button on the remote and wait a few seconds. That digital display? Egads, Scotty, beam me up! Thankfully it can be turned off. Furthermore, I would love to chain my SlimDevices Squeezebox to the CDSA, but the lack of digital inputs on the CDSA make that impossible, a fact I find most objectionable in this day & age. As for sonic playback, the bass depth and impact leave a bit to be desired to take the unit to ‘state-of-the-art’ levels (as defined by the Esoteric XO-1 D2).

And it’s appropriate that we consider what ‘state-of-the-art’ is. Here and now, the EMM Labs CDSA, with emphasis on its sonic performance, is the state-of-the-art in digital playback (as is the Esoteric XO-1 D2). I don’t know if it’s the DAC circuitry, or the MDAT, or the upsampling, but I’ve not encountered a player that does more with the flawed medium of Redbook CD’s. It makes poorly recorded discs musical, and it makes well recorded discs sound more musical than you’ve ever heard them. For those audiophiles who will never go back to the inconvenience or demands of vinyl but respect and love what that medium delivers, the EMM is as close as you can get via digital software.

The EMM Labs CDSA, light on brawn but heavy on brains, will be making its residence on my listening rack for the foreseeable future, as I bought the review sample. I know of no higher recommendation than parting with my hard-earned money. And if you have the resources at your disposal, you owe it to yourself to audition this unit.

Digital never had it so good.

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  I‘m going to say upfront that this machine is capable of the best digital sound it has been my pleasure to hear, the best by some margin. It will open your eyes to the stunning potential of SACD, so often hidden by mediocre implementations, and can go head to head with exotic vinyl spinners for ultimate fidelity. There is no aural sugar coating, artificial warmth or hyped up dynamics designed to impress in the showroom. This is the real McCoy — a machine dedicated to extracting the maximum accuracy from a two channel SACD signal. But it is not the user-friendliest piece of equipment, it won’t do multi-channel or DVD-Audio, and who knows where SACD is heading!

Interested? Read on….

It isn’t the most expensive SACD player, although at $9995 it may be the most expensive two-channel-only SACD one box player after the dCS P8i ($13,995). Until now, to put together EMM’s complete digital source you would have had to combine their SACD Transport, the CDSD SE ($8400), and either the DCC2 SE two channel DAC/Preamp ($13,500) or the 6-Channel DAC6e SE (also $13,500), for a total of $21,900 either way. So the CDSA SE may turn out to be something of a steal if you really want the EMM Labs sound.

Why is this one box player so much less expensive than its brothers?

 

 It doesn’t have all the features of the separates — you are losing either a spectacular preamp or four channels.

 There’s only one chassis instead of two. This also saves you the cost of cables between the transport and DAC.

 The connection between transport and DAC can be greatly simplified when both are built into one chassis.

 There are far fewer rear panel connectors to support and no digital inputs.

 The transport is a less sophisticated version of the one in the CDSD SE.

 

If you are only interested in two-channel music, you like the performance of this one-box player and you already have a preamp you are happy with, I don’t see the downside.

 

 

The box itself is quite big and heavy, 15.”7 x 5.5″ x 17.1″ (DxHxW), weighing a total of 26.5 lbs. This makes it a tight fit in my rack, but I have it nicely balanced on a Sound Fusion CD Platform for optimal mechanical isolation. The unit is quite handsome, although no match for the superb styling and finish of the Esoteric range or the other high priced Japanese components that find their way to these shores. A large LED display makes viewing easy from my listening position, with the exception of some unevenly lit messages showing the repeat status or which layer of a hybrid disc is being played.

What’s in the box? The drive unit is a Philips unit, a simplified variant of the one in the stellar CDSD SE Transport. Redbook upsampling to a 5.6448MHz DSD bitstream comes courtesy of a Meitner Digital Audio Translator (MDAT) circuit. MDAT examines the transient nature of the signal and chooses instantaneously from a selection of available conversion algorithms. The dual differential DACs are a proprietary discrete design since Ed is not satisfied with the limitations in integrated circuits of capacitor design and control of power supply fluctuations. His discrete approach may be much more expensive to produce and takes up more real estate but only this way can he avoid the differential non-linearities he claims exist in all D/A chips. Even the circuit boards are special, constructed of aerospace grade composite laminate for low dielectric loss and improved heat conduction for smooth temperature gradients and improved stability over time. Microscopically smooth copper traces are used top and bottom to reduce skin effect issues.

 

Ergonomics
I’m not a particularly happy camper here. I’m not fond of the rows of identical looking buttons on the EMM’s faceplate. I don’t much like the slow loading times, although many SACD players suffer a similar fate, and some do much worse. It takes between 13 and 15 seconds for the music to start playing from the time you press Play with a disc in the open drawer. This is due to the low-level behavior of the drive controller, which is beyond EMM’s control. More distressing is the complete lack of feedback for the instructions you key into the backlit remote control. Normally, when you punch in a track number you can see the digits show up on the unit’s display panel, but not here. Five seconds may pass before anything happens, and then the music starts playing the desired track well before the display updates to tell you what’s playing. The remote is a substantial, well laid out plastic wand, and includes useful buttons for phase and layer change.

You can turn off the display but I could hear no difference in sound either way. Dimming the display is not an option. The readout looks more like a scientific instrument (which it is) than usual, with track times shown in an unusual format 0.06.18 meaning six minutes and 18 seconds into the track. On most players you can select from a range of different ways to monitor the time elapsed or remaining, by track or by disc, but this machine offers no choice at all. If the disc is playing it shows you the track number and elapsed time on this track, otherwise it shows you the number of tracks and the length of the disc. I found these ergonomic limitations surprising, so I discussed this with the engineers at EMM Labs.

 

 

It seems Ed Meitner believes the presence of the normal microprocessor that implements the control logic in almost every other player has a detrimental effect on the sound, so he has discarded it in favor of a much simpler Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The advantage here is the removal of the continuous clock, which may have an adverse effect on the other circuits. The clock need only be activated when necessary so that functional blocks can remain in a quiescent state when not required. This FPGA is capable of reacting to only a few simple commands and does not have sufficient capacity to show the numbers being pressed on the keypad. Instead, it can just show the track that is now playing. This explains the relatively primitive display and control options, and Ed believes the sonic benefits are worth the sacrifice in utility. Now it all makes sense, and provided the player is still simple enough to control and the sound does indeed surpass the competition, this decision can be supported.

A Perreaux Radiance R200i and a Valve Audio Predator were used in my tests with my reference Nordost Valhalla cabling throughout, occasionally switching over to top of the line Crystal Cable Ultra power cords and EMM Isopath Interconnects. The very revealing Wilson Benesch Act 1s with updated drivers and Bybee Quantum Purifiers completed the system. The Predator (a hybrid integrated amp with a tube preamp section and a 200 Wpc MOSFET power amp) is not sufficiently resolving and dynamic to release the full dynamic potential of the CDSA but the solid state Perreaux makes a great partner.

Now for the acid test.

The Sound
Part 1: Redbook on the EMM versus Redbook on the Meridian G08.
The Meridian G08 makes it very hard for other CD Players that come my way for review. It’s so eminently musical, dynamic, involving and spacious. If I hadn’t heard its big brother, the 808 Signature Reference, I’d have a hard time naming its better.

The EMM Labs comfortably exceeds the performance of the G08 by providing higher resolution, increased dynamics and a bigger, deeper and more precisely located image.

Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust [Vanguard VCD3-127] can overwhelm with its high energy and many layers of detail. The G08 is full of color, weight and detail and the famous voice is present and far from thin as through lesser players. Low-level detail can be heard easily in the mix and the music swells and thrills. The EMM throws a larger image where each instrument is more precisely located, and the level of detail is even higher. Perhaps it is just easier to make out fine details because the acoustic space is so large that the sounds do not run into each other. Most notably, the bass line is stronger and the voice is even more rich and intimate. A sensational performance from both machines, with a clear edge going to the EMM.

The same verdict applies to the magnificent Haitink recording of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony [DECCA 425066 2]. Each machine brings its own special qualities. The Meridian majors in dynamics, color and speed, while the EMM trumps the Meridian on detail, openness, depth and beauty of string tone. There is a wonderful sense of purity to the EMM’s sound, and this is very effective in making sense of the blinding crescendos that can so easily turn to mush in lesser hands. I particularly enjoy the delicate layering which the EMM reveals in the textures of the orchestral playing and the startling bite of the brass. Each machine is capable of terrifying you in this music (most CD players cannot), but the EMM makes more sense of the brilliant orchestration due to its altogether remarkable imaging.

Beethoven Piano Sonata Opus 32 No. 1, played by Alfred Brendel [Philips 438 134-2] has humor, passion and virtuosity by turns. All of this is well demonstrated by the Meridian, with its excellent timing, black backgrounds and strong dynamics. The long reverberation of the grand piano is captured perfectly, as is the voicing Brendel gives to each part. This is an extremely musical performance and it sounds like Brendel is improvising, so fresh is his music making. Bass notes sound clear and from middle C on up the piano sings. The EMM takes this one step further. It allows you to hear the separate strands more clearly, and it ruthlessly reveals Brendel’s hard piano tone, a far cry from the beautiful sound a Rubinstein brings to Beethoven. The Meridian may sound more elegant, but I’ve heard Brendel in the flesh many times, so I know the EMM is more accurate.

I spent a lot of time comparing Redbook on these two machines, because the EMM is a candidate to be my new reference digital source. Since I have so many excellent CDs any new reference will have to be clearly superior to the G08 on Redbook. So I pulled out dozens of CD, never once failing to prefer the EMM. I noticed a stronger deep bass, a more open and refined top end, outstanding low level detail and the blackest of backgrounds.

In short, a clear win for the EMM.

 

 

Part 2: Redbook on the EMM versus Redbook on the Meridian 808
Can the EMM top the Meridian 808 Signature Reference CD Player on Redbook? The 808 improves on every one of the G08’s fine audio qualities and is certainly the best CD player I have ever heard. It has presence, authority, explosive dynamics, extremely high resolution, lightning responses — it simply brings music to life. It certainly should at $12,995.

I don’t have the 808 on hand so I’ll have to go by memory, with the help of my detailed listening notes. The CDSE SA comes very close to toppling the 808 from its position as the CD player of choice. It edges past the 808 on purity of sound and deep bass extension, but cannot quite match its relaxed easy nature or its power and immediacy. It may be more accurate than the Meridian, but accuracy to a 44.1kHz/16-bit signal is not the same as accuracy to the original performance. On Redbook the little bit of extra warmth the Meridian offers is welcome and tips the scale in its favor.

I could happily live with either but I’ll give the edge to the Meridian 808.

Part 3: SACD on the EMM versus Redbook CD on the Meridian G08.
This will be a very short section.

On every well-recorded SACD disc in my collection, the SACD layer proved clearly superior to the Meridian G08’s Redbook. It’s not even close. The EMM is at once more precise, more responsive and rich, so that you very quickly lose the appetite for A/B testing. I am surprised to be writing these words, since SACD has never fully convinced me before now. Sure, the bass is exceptional, and I like the detail, but I’ve often found the treble unconvincing and the music to have lost some of its excitement. I’ve blamed the medium and remained happy with my vast collection of CDs.

Today I’ve changed my mind. The problem was never the medium itself, just the rather the particular implementations I’ve heard from the Esoteric DV-50, the Sony SCD-XA9000ES, the modified Denon 5900, and the McCormack UDP that have spent significant amounts of time in my system and the various other players I’ve auditioned more briefly.

No contest.

Part 4: SACD on the EMM versus Redbook CD on the EMM.
SACD on the EMM sounds quite different from CD on the EMM. After auditioning a string of machines whose SACD performance was only modestly better than that from CD, this comes as quite a shock. Although certain sonic characteristics are common to both layers here, specifically the high level of definition and the exemplary imaging, CD sounds nowhere near as good as SACD on this beast. And why should it? SACD boasts a bit-rate of 2,822,400 bps while Redbook checks in at 705,600 bps, quite a difference. For comparison purposes 24-bit/96kHz clocks in at 2,304,000 bps — nearly as high as the DSD stream.

The SACD layer is much more palpable and present than the CD layer. Intimacy is increased, the bass line is firmer and more defined, the top more open, the detail greater, the image more realistic. Every aspect of performance is improved, and improved markedly. Now it is easy to understand why people fuss over their inconvenient analog turntables rather than switch to the ubiquitous CD. CD is an approximation to the analog signal and so of course is SACD. But SACD is a much better approximation and therefore more faithful to the original sound. Good enough to challenge vinyl head on and miles ahead in convenience. I’m not saying the CDSA puts vinyl to shame or competes with analog master tape. Let’s just say it is much harder to dismiss digital on principle when it sounds like this.

Game, set and match to the EMM.

Part 5 – SACD on the EMM
Forget about A/B testing. Let’s concentrate on SACD exclusively. There’s no better place to start than MAonSA, a compilation disc put together using Holland’s Crystal Cables by the Japanese/American specialty label MA Recordings using very simple high quality microphones to record small groups or soloists onto PCM at sample rates from 24-bit/96kHz to 24-bit/174.6kHz. So this is not a native DSD recording, but the conversion to DSD has been done superbly. The piano on track two is the most realistic I have ever heard. There is no temptation to compare with the Redbook layer on this hybrid CD since MA has encoded completely different selections onto the CD layer.

Many SACDs fall well short and are downright disappointing. Bob Dylan’s 60s recordings are thin and lacking in detail and texture and the same goes for The Rolling Stones. Nora Jones’ first album [Blue Note 5414728] is a joke — the DSD Stereo layer being derived from a Redbook source. Blood Sweat and Tears SACD only album [Columbia 63986] leaves me cold. I’ve had great recordings from Channel Classics, Mobile Fidelity, IsoMike, Analog Productions, ASV, Telarc and Artegra, while Columbia, Abkco and Blue Note have sometimes disappointed. Ideally you should look for an original DSD recording, but there are many fine recordings dating back to the days of analog recording.

 

And So…
Clearly Mr. Meitner is on to something. What is his secret sauce? Is it the absence of a microprocessor, the discrete DACs, the power supply, the transport, the output stage? Is it the fine-tuning or fundamental design principles? I can’t tell for sure, but I can give you some clues. His colleagues tell me that Ed Meitner likes to think like an electron, and designs his circuitry from the electron’s point of view. If I were an audio signal, what would make my passage through this analog circuit as happy as possible? Listening tests are the final stage, and Ed has a very good sense of how those tests will turn out before they begin, because he has calculated and measured the performance of the circuit in advance.

 

 

Of primary concern in his designs is preservation of the phase characteristics of the signal. If you get this right, the imaging will be spot on and the output has a chance to sound like music should sound. Add high resolution, low distortion, tonal accuracy, black backgrounds and broad bandwidth and you’re nearly home. But a number of high end components still fall down in the areas of dynamic range and transient response. You need a broad dynamic range with headroom for the most massive crescendos and you need lightning reflexes to capture the excitement and tactile feel of live music. To achieve this requires the most careful attention to the power supply and the independent regulation and isolation of the various digital and control circuits. The CDSA SE has all these qualities in spades, giving true meaning to the much misused expression high fidelity.

Some will prefer a smoother or warmer SACD sound; others may prefer the dynamics reduced a little for more comfortable listening. They may be happier with an Accuphase or Audio Aero. EMM Labs makes no concessions in this area, aiming only for the purest possible reproduction of the original recording. This component does not romanticize the music in the least, and is also very revealing of inferior recordings and flawed components. You need to partner it with high resolution, wide bandwidth, low distortion equipment to do it justice.

The CDSA SE has to be in very front rank of CD Players regardless of cost. It will do wonders for detail retrieval, imaging and accuracy complete with a fully realized bottom end and open top on the best Redbook recordings. Its failings are those of the medium itself. As to SACD, this is as good as digital gets, and far better than any Redbook CD you will ever hear.

Not a mass market product, but clearly an exceptional achievement and a challenge to vinyl lovers everywhere. Meet my new reference digital source.