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Cd Player shootout ; which is the best of the best

Want to have some fun and at the same time benefit from some savy advice, here is the deal.
My front end is a Wadia 861 (actually an 860x recently upgraded). The unit's presentation is exquisite, in fact it bettered or equaled in various areas a 270/27ix Wadia combo I was babysiting for a friend while waiting for mine. However I've been serously considering going one step further and send it to Steve Huntley of Great Northern Sound(GNS) for his further upgrade which it's know to yield a significant improvement in the performance of this unit.
While doing some research in this topic a couple of units have cough my eye as serious contenders to the title of "best of the best cd player" Now I am wondering if I would do better upgrading my 861 or switching to one of these, the contenders are:
* Wadia 861 (with the GNS modificaton)
* Audiomeca Mephisto 24/192
* Audio Aereo Capitole 24/192
* Electrocompaniet EMC-1 MK II 24/192
There maybe some other worthy contenders but for sanity purpouses I've limited the scope to these ones.
For matching purpouses the rest of my set-up includes Lamm M1.1 monoblocks driving Verity's Parsifals via XLO Limited speaker cables, balanced interconnects are XLO Limited.
The 861 goes directly into the amps. in my current set-up but with 2 of this units I would need some volume control and am thinking a Placette pasive unit since ther is no analog in my inmediate future. No offense to vinyl lovers, I recognize it's many strenghs but at this point in my life am not willing to deal with it's complications.
Have you had the chance to compare some of these units among themselves? Your experiences will be greatly welcome and appreciated. Thanks.
jmr

Showing 1 response by subaruguru

subaruguru
1,362 posts
 
Jmr,
I too have the Parsifal Encores (aren't they great?!), and am REALLY pleased with my EMC-1 MkII up front, running balanced into Aleph P and 2 monos. Certainly NOT too bright, and with an effortless dynamisn even at lower gain settings! At first I thought that maybe the top octave was soft, but readily learned that it's the LACK of digital artifact and noise that makes it so damned natural and relaxed. Simply NO glare or treble edginess. Really, it makes me wonder what the fuss is all about with SACD....

I DID find that Harm Tech Pro Silway MkII and Nordost Red Dawn ICs were too lean (midrange lacked vividness), and am quite enthused with a Discovery Essence running balanced.
I have a Siltech 48B (auction sloppiness!) coming to compare, but I can't imagine an improvement.

I float the MkII on a Neuance, but am not sure it matters much. The EMC is also a joy to use, despite the bright blue display.
You can get a used MkI around here for $2k, and get the MkII DAC Kit upgrade from a friend of mine in Europe for $600, and have a helluva front end for under $3k.

I understand there's a lot of enthusiasm for the Mephisto and Capitole around here, but I'm done!
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