Is the EMM DAC6e or DCC2 /CDSD the best out there?


Is this the best digital front end ever?

What about

Reiymo CDP 777?
dCS gear?
Audio Aero Prestige?

Any other contenders?
iujona
Guidocorona..yup the UX-01 was broken, not so sure about the Ayre, though, it got better and better but still, just something very mechanical about it, which, in my experience is not like Ayre. My wonderful dealer, who did an "oops" when he sold me the UX-01, never got in another X-01 for me to try, so, oh well. It sure does look better than the Meitner in my opinion, but, gosh I just love the Meitner sound. Will try your recommendations on the shunyata.

Thanks
Elberoth 2: sure thing, guess we just have different priorites in what we are looking for, or its matter of system matching.

Chrisla: Many say the Ayre needs a lot of break-in.
King Kong vs Godzilla. Man that would worth selling tickets too. Everyone knows ,respects and enjoys Mike and his enviable quest towards the sonic Garden of Eden . His words are stepping stones for so many of us to follow as he is humble , careful in his suggestions and ariculates his wisdom with authority . Many are getting to know the fire breathing Alex Peychev as he unleashes an all out assault on the limitations of digital.Getting to know him is a study in perserverance and dedication . His genius is apparent . Sticks or stones , swords or knives , I am there for this one. Even Russell Crowe would don a suit of armor to sideline referee this . I flew out last weekend to Alex s home in California from South Carolina to spend 72 non stop hours listening to his all proprietary system . He is relentless in his enthusiasm and confidence and what I witnessed with my own ears was worthy of a paradiam shift in my perception of digital. His system must he heard to be believed in my opinion .On the other hand I have not yet flown out to hear Mikes so I cant say but will make it a priority in 06 if he is willing. Having Alex make the trip to Mikes with the NWO-1 for direct comparison to Mikes SOTA would be worthy of everyones interest. Maybe after the show in 06 we can get the two giants of Audio into the ring !!
Brainwater, so well put. Are you a gambling man willing to take wagers?? Any odds makers / bookies out there?
No bets necessary Dgad as it seems we all come out winners having these two in our hobby!!
Brainwater...when u r ready please do post your impressions of Indra....would be very much interested to hear your observations...thanks.
Has anyone actually owned the DCC2 - CDSD combo and sold it to acquire a different digital front end?
Soooo . . . Mikel and Alex . . . are you getting together? Some of us would love to learn of your impressions of each other's systems and front ends . . .

Thanks.
The number of EMM dacs currently for sale on Audiogon (8?) might lead one to believe that it isn't "the best out there."
"The number of EMM dacs currently for sale on Audiogon (8?) might lead one to believe that it isn't "the best out there."

IMO that is a somewhat far stretched assumption on your part.
Bookner, Mikelavigne visited me at CES. I played the promised DVD-A made directly from $25K vinyl setup for him. He agreed that it was exactly as the vinyl was playing there with no sign of digital or negative artifacts.

I will soon take advantage of his generous invitation and visit him with my DVD-A recording suite and my Digital Front end. There will be two objectives:

1. To see if 96KHz/24bit recording out of his vinyl setup will sound the same on A-B test.

2. To see how his EMM Labs gear will do against my re-engineered Esoteric UX-1. Well, actually, I already know the answer to this question since we already had an A-B test with the latest EMM Labs gear and the UX-1 at a local audiophile's house last weekend.

Stay tuned!

Alex
Alex,

Can you tell more about your "re-engineered" UX-1? What are the differences and what does it better than a standart UX-1?
Muratc,

The re-engineered UX-1 has the following done to it so these are the differences with the original:

1. Heavily upgraded original power supply. Another (third) R-Core power transformer added with 16 additional linear power supplies/regulators.

2. Heavily upgraded and re-designed Digital Signal Processing board with completely new own designed Master Clock, signal routing, new passive components and new DSD to PCM converter working at 176.4KHz/24bit. The original uses older chip working at 88.2KHz/24bit DSD to PCM conversion. Please note that the DA Converter chips I am using are capable of direct DSD processing, but it did not bring as good results compared to DSD to PCM conversion, sorry to say.

3. World's first 211KHz/32bit Upsampling with second Master Clock. The DACs are “seeing” 211KHz/bit at all times regardless of what format is played.

4. Industry's first implementation of the flagship DAC chips by AKM of Japan. There are 10 DACs per channel for extremely low noise and distortions.

5. Unique Hybrid Attenuator with 0.5db step and remote control. This eliminates the need of a preamp if Digital is the only source.

6. Transformer coupled Class "A" tube output stage using the 6H30 super triodes. Custom output transformers made by Lundahl.

It is hard to explain what it does better than a standard UX-1. It is totally different in every respect; there is no sign of the original UX-1 sound. You really need to hear it in order to understand and believe what it is. This is the reason we have named it NWO-1.

Please note that although the Video capabilities are preserved, the Multichannel outputs are removed. It becomes Stereo only. Of course, the digital output can be connected to an external processor for Dolby and DTS decoding which ensures Multichannel DVD Video.

Regards,
Alex
Muratc, it is not mods, it is re-design. I am just using the VRDS-NEO transport which happens to be light years advanced. :-)

"Wow, quite a few mods... Who does it?"

Me.

Regards,
Alex
I haven't read all the posts, but I heard Alex's system at Alphifi, and I am an analogphile. I'm not sure about how the presentation compares, but I am sure(I think), that the effect of listening to Alex's system was much greater than my system-digital warts and all.
Hello Alex,

Sorry, I didn't know about your company and its works. I found your website and read some comments on the net. NWO-1 seems to be a great product. Will you be making it for European markets, too? 220V? Do you have any international distributors or do you sell direct? And the big question: What's the waiting time for NWO-1?