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Chadeffect said:

"you mention redbook playback. The Emm lab and DCS give you the choice of playing either SACD or redbook disks. The bonus i guess being they upsample rebook to dsd."

The Playback Designs MPS-5 also upsamples to DSD. My redbook library took a GIANT leap forward when I added this piece. It sounds wonderful with redbook. Now I need to dig around to find a disc that I've got both in CD and SACD to see how they compare. The CD reproduction is so incredible that I don't find my self switching over to SACD or vinyl now. It really organic, detailed and rich.

Dave

Sorry guys,

the point I was trying to make was whether it is a SACD player or not is not important.

If you do go for an SACD player (I understand this thread is about a good single box for redbook playback) the bonus is that if you play redbook on it it will use the DSD upsampling and obviously if you do play an SACD disk you gain from its greater resolution anyway.

I have a pretty good SACD player and it makes little difference whether I play redbook or DSD. They all sound amazing. Very rarely do I find myself complaining about the disk type. If its a good recording, its a good recording!

where is the playback designs manufactured? also, who is the designer?

06-30-08: Maxx2man asked:
"where is the playback designs manufactured? also, who is the designer?"

USA; Andreas Koch.

Andreas Koch ? The former vice president of EMM Labs ? Never knew that he handled the design part at EMM. Always thought that he was an export manager.