I bought Samuel's ECD-1 DAC and the sound from any source I connect to it (primarily a Squeezebox) is fantastic. I used to own the EMC-1 (non-upsampling) and think the ECD-1 sounds like the EMC-1--very analogue-like. Like someone said, a cross between tubes and SS. I would look there first for a similar-sounding CD player, for sure.