dcs puccini, chord red ref, meitner cdsa or nagra

Regarding the Playback Designs player- I received mine yesterday and am enormously impressed. My previous digital was the EMM Labs CDSA SE. player. The Playback Designs straight out of the box, with 30 minutes of playing time betters the EMM Labs across the board. Most noticeable improvements were- much deeper, better defined bass - significantly blacker background - better image definition and soundstage focus and depth - more extended highs, without ANY glare or edge. One would expect that with several hundred hours of break-in the unit will continue to improve in the above areas, among others that I haven't noticed yet.

I much prefer the looks, and build quality, of the Playback Designs over the EMM Labs. An industrial designer was clearly utilized and it shows in the much more sophisticated look and substantial feel of the PD. The EMM Labs is a cheap, thin metal box with rudimentary design. I have to say that the look of a component is of, absolutely, secondary consideration when compared with it's sonic performance. And, I would doubt that the EMM Labs player was sonically hindered by the design/build quality. That being said, I think the PD is a way better package ergonomically and visually. The transport reads discs much faster and the remote works alot better, as well.

I'm writing this post in my office, down a hall from my listening room. In listening casually as I type this what keeps drawing my attention is how un-digitally natural this player sounds. I can't wait for it to break-in.

the Chord Red Reference got the highest rating EVER from hi-fi choice. hasn't anyone heard it?

@Maxx2man , I hear it in Munich, it was a relief when the Chrod substituted with the vinyl (Continuum)......

@Dazzdax,
Chris regarding your question it depends on the cd collection or vinyl collection one has....if I had thousand of vinyls I'd invest in the best possible analogue and a good decent one box cd-player, but since I have thousands of original cds I'd invest in Scarlatti if I could.
For the moment the dCS Puccini transfroms my red book cds in what was promised many years ago...MUSIC, something that even my former Emmlabs CDSA SE could not do in such degree, so I could only imagine what the Scarlatti can achieve!

@ Maxx2man - Chord Red Reference got a mixed review from HiFi News (UK). You may want to check it out.

@ Kops - did you change from CDSA to Puccini ? How do they compare. I know that you were a huge fan of EMM.

@Elberoth2- Adam, yes very recently I changed, I've let dCS Puccini to burn-in and this weekend I had a shootout with the new Emmlabs owner and 2 more audiophiles, well the Puccini having much wider soundstage, more transparency (it's like a shower in music!) more live and vivid but as smooth and above all it was the first time I understood that Emm cdsa se had some kind of glare and blurr and mixed some instruments, although I still think cdsa se it's still a fantastic player, Puccini is another league and very musical too.
The most impressive thing is what it does to plain vanilla redbook cds with dsd upsampling!!!
All the cabling was the same and both players used 2 Stealth Dream digital power cords.
And the whole feeling of construction and extra options is amazing. I have not connected yet directly to my amplifier so I still have things to check.

For me both players (Puccini and cdsa se) are the most exciting balance of smooth musical sound but also precise and revealing (even warm sounding in a good way). Some experience with non-oversampling dacs was dramatic, yep these dacs masking the music but hides things in attempt to be musical as I concluded the hard thing is to keep it musical but with all the information and right timbre as well and in that area new dCS and Emmlabs are among the best representatives.