Anyone have experience with the new ELAC DDP-2?

@rickallen81 Thanks for the updates, and please keep them coming.  The DDP-2 is a promising-looking piece of gear, but it is difficult to find user reviews.

Still getting a bit smoother day by day. Voices are standing out nicely now. Listening to some Fleet Foxes and it’s sounding much more natural than day one with a little more separation in between layers of the songs. Still a bit of not-broken-in smear but I’m seeing more and more of the “character” of the DAC which I’d now describe as decidedly solid state with controlled sound but supplementing some of the spooky realness and depth and width that tubes seem to add. 

Weeeeelll shoot.
  I just had an a-ha moment with this DAC. One of my test songs that I know backward and forward sounded pretty damn awesome. You may laugh but it’s Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind. I’ve always loved the layering of three guitars, a bass guitar, and a set of strings. I can’t recall hearing them more clearly separated and identifiable in space. With many other sources, there tends to be a smearing of the instruments such that strings all sound like a synthesizer and not a violin, viola, and cello. I had the thought during the song “well, how am I supposed to return this now?”

Similar experience here. On par with high end separates at many times its cost.
No need for a leap of faith to order one. I take the risk. 30 day In Home Trial. Free Shipping, No restocking fee. For the next 10 people who order, I’ll even pay the return shipping coming back to me, if you are less than 100% satisfied. I want to get more of the Alchemy Series components out in the field for reviews from real people. These products can stand on their performance and value. No risk to try them in your system. On the rare occasion of a return, we process the refund the same day the item is received as shown by the tracking #. No delays or hassle at all. Excellent DAC and Linear supply FET pure analog preamp. Don’t take my word for it, try it.

I'll be showing the DDP-2 Preamp-DAC at Axpona April 12-14 feeding a pair of Bob Carver Crimson 350 Mono Blocks. Room 1215

Just over a week with the DDP-2. 

The DAC is really really good. Tons of space between instruments which makes it easy to pick up nuances previously unnoticed in songs. Not as much midrange punch and warmth as I would like but the neutrality across the range is really nice. 

I plugged in some headphones today (Sennheiser HD650) and it’s fairly disappointing. Compared to the headphone amp on the Parasound, the ELAC is thin and veiled. To get the Senns to sound as well rounded as on the Parasound, I have to crank it to uncomfortable levels. Where the Parasound imaged sounds as though they were coming from the inside of my forehead, it’s like everything is behind my head and through a blanket. Hopefully, it’s just that the headphone amp part has not gotten any attention and needs some break in as well.