EMM Labs XDS1 V2 SACDReference Player/ USB DAC. BONUSusedEMM Labs  XDS1 V2 SACD Reference Player/ USB DAC. BONUS High End Power cordBlowout deal! The Latest Reference CD/SACD player from EMM Labs, now with USB digital input. (Can be used as a DAC or a SACD/CD Player). This is the newest model and is a mint demo unit. Bla...13100.00

EMM Labs XDS1 V2 SACD Reference Player/ USB DAC. BONUS High End Power cord

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Ships fromMishawaka, IN, 46545
Ships toUnited States
Package dimensionsunspecified
Shipping carrierFedEx
Shipping costFree
Original accessoriesRemote Control, Box, Manual
AverageResearch Pricing

Blowout
deal! The Latest Reference CD/SACD player from EMM Labs, now with USB
digital input. (Can be used as a DAC or a SACD/CD Player). This is the
newest model and is a mint demo unit. Black face. It has all recent
updates. Like new. Incredibly good sounding player.

Included with this unit is an ultra high end power cord. I have a
couple to choose from but my favorite is the Siltech Ruby Double Crown.
It makes this player really come alive. The best that I have ever heard.

I will consider trade ins.

I am an authorized dealer for Legacy Speakers, PS Audio, Oracle,
Auralic, Canary Audio, Verastarr, Resonessence, NAT Audio, and Triangle
Art. Paypal/CC adds 2.9%,

Will consider trades. Midwest Audio, South Bend, IN

Emm Labs has released their latest Reference CD/SACD Player, the
XDS1-V2, from world leading expert digital converter designer, Ed
Meitner.

The XDS1-V2 offers a quantum leap forward in technology and design.
Inside its sculpted, brushed aluminium chassis is a silky smooth
Esoteric drive mated to the industry most sophisticated digital and
analog electronics to be found on aerospace composite pcbs. The XDS1-V2
features shorter signal paths and increased parts quality. All
conversion circuitry is proprietary and discrete (no op amps); and
operates in pure Class A.

The XDS1-V2 has now all new COAXIAL, TOSLINK, AES and USB inputs -
each able to support up to 24bit/192kHz. The USB input also supports
native DSD streaming.

The XDS1-V2 features their most refined Meitner Digital Audio
Translator (MDAT) circuitry yet. But it is what MDAT does that makes it
so amazing! With MDAT, there is no pre- and post ringing; which is why
MDAT - quite unlike any other processing technology extant - is unique
in its ability to preserve the phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of
the waveform. Once you have heard this level of improvement in terms of
resolution, nuance and dynamic shading, there is no going back. But
that is not where it ends: the XDS1-V2 also features EMM Labs most
inquisitively refined conversion circuitry ever - their MDAC module,
which is a "cost-no-object" solution with discrete dual differential
circuitry free of differential nonlinearities.

Most converters, including high end systems, use a type of PLL (phase
locked loop) system to synchronize their digital systems. PLLs have
many inherent flaws, most notably its lacking ability to get rid of
jitter (it can only attenuate it); inherently slow to lock, a limited
lock range and response time and will naturally drift thus adding jitter
and phase distortion. This is where Ed Meitner distinguishes himself -
the XDS1-V2 utilises their new proprietary digital source acquisition
system, called MFAST that captures, extracts and re-clock incoming
digital audio asynchronously, thereby completely getting rid of any
source jitter!

The XDS1-V2 has a newly upgraded high-isolation resonant mode power
supply - the greenest they have ever built; and also the quietest -
significantly outperforming typical switchers and linear power supplies.
Proprietary to EMM Labs and the XDS1-V2, this power supply synchronizes
its operating frequency (or resonant mode) to every other system within
the XDS1-V2, thereby reducing digital noise to the vanishing point.

The EMM Labs XDS1-V2 CD/SACD Player - Everything about it is better than everything that has come before it.

Specifications

Technology / Key Features:

- All digital inputs support up to 24bit, 192kHz PCM audio

- PCM inputs via USB, AES/EBU and Toslink

- DSD streaming over USB (DoP 1.0)

- Single stage from DAC to output with fully discrete Class-A circuitry

- Meitner Digital Audio Translator (MDATTM) signal processing technology

- Provides 2x DSD upsampling for SACD and PCM playback

- Preserves phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of waveform

- MDACTM discrete dual differential D-to-A conversion circuit

- MFASTTM technology for instant signal acquisition, jitter-free performance

- High-isolation resonant mode power supply for silent, green operation

- Exclusive aerospace-grade composite laminate circuit boards

- Silky smooth EsotericTM drive

- Sculpted, brushed aluminum chassis

- Low resonance, internally braced design with thick, machined sole plate

- Available in silver or black

- LCD display with four brightness levels and a display-off setting

- Precision-machined aluminum multifunction infrared remote control

- Remote-controllable polarity inversion performed in the digital domain

- CE-compliant device

Digital input formats:

- Class 2 USB (44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, DSD)

- AES/EBU PCM (44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz)

- TOSLINK PCM (44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz)

- Up to 24bit wordlength at all inputs

- DSD streaming over USB (DoP 1.0 specification)

Digital output formats:

- AES/EBU

- EMM Optilink

Stereo Audio Outputs:

- XLR 300 ohms balanced

- RCA 150 ohms unbalanced

- Two user selectable output levels:

-- Low position: XLR: +10.4dBu, RCA: +4.4dBu

-- High position: XLR: +15.4dBu, RCA: +9.4dBu

Power supply:

- Power factor corrected

- Factory set to 100V or 115V or 230V, 50/60Hz

- Power consumption: 45W (max)

Dimensions:

- 435mm (W) X 400mm (D) X 145mm (H)

Net Weight:

- 17 Kg

Material:

- Sculpted, brushed aluminium chassis extensively treated with
vibration control material consisting of a highly damped, low-rebound,
rapid-settling polymer composite.

Review of XDS1 excerpt from Enjoythemusic:

The Chassis

The box must provide a stable platform for the drive mechanism and
facilitate isolation of each of the major subsystems from the others.
The XDS1 retains the same reasonably compact dimensions as the CDSA, but
the bottom plate is now a thick slab of milled aluminum instead of
sheet metal. The feet, which include a mechanical isolator, are machined
from aluminum blocks. Improved shielding between the components extends
even to the display panel. A quick look inside reveals the modular
approach taken to shield the electronic components from the power supply
and control mechanisms. The chassis is internally braced and damped to
eliminate resonance. The unit weighs a substantial 37.5 lbs, well up
from the 26.5 lbs weight of the CDSA SE. You can select either a silver
or black finish.

The Power Supply

Ed Meitner has always used switching power supplies in his digital
components. He maintains that they are more efficient than linear power
supplies and inject less interference on the line that can travel back
to other components. This incarnation is a newer version of his classic
design, aimed at minimizing noise levels. Like its predecessors it has
power factor correction (PFC), and in this implementation it is the
superior active form of PFC rather than the more common passive form.
The XDS1 has been tested and is CE compliant. The power supply is now
more impervious to the imperfections on the input power line, so will
likely be less cable sensitive. It now reaches 95% efficiency,
contributing to the cool running of the unit. To achieve the desired
quality, the transformers are custom wound. A high voltage rail is
created from the input line, and lower voltages are derived from this
high voltage line rather than directly from the input. This isolates the
low voltage power feeds from phenomena present on the line. Switching
frequencies are synched to the audio clock, since experiments have shown
this approach minimizes jitter (timing inaccuracies). All the low
voltage feeds are very tightly regulated to ensure optimal performance
in the signal path. A good proportion of the cost and the performance of
the XDS1 can be directly attributed to this remarkable power supply,
which sits to the left and runs the full height of the chassis. You’ll
see it labeled EMM Labs X Power System SMPS v. 3.

The Drive Unit

For the first time, EMM Labs specify an Esoteric VSOP drive unit,
rather than the European drives used in earlier models. The box marked
EMM Labs X Drive Systems contains the Esoteric control system and the
drive itself is mounted centrally and offers a slim metal drawer for the
disc. This mechanism loads discs much faster than before (around 6
seconds for CD and 10 seconds for SACD). It also responds instantly to
commands, a huge improvement over its predecessor. A similar mechanism
is found in the dCS Puccini CD / SACD Player and several other high end
players.

The Digital Input Circuitry

The asynchronous input circuitry from the DAC 2 has been further
refined in the XDS1. Currently it supports only TosLink and AES/EBU at
up to 24-bit/96kHz, but we can expect a firmware update (uploadable
through the USB service connection) to support 24/192 inputs in the near
future. Although often dismissed in the past as a lower quality
connection, EMM Labs assure me the TosLink input included here is a very
high performance device capable of superb low jitter communications if
the transmitting device is well implemented. It is galvanically
isolating – a fancy way of saying it isolates the ground from the ground
in the source component. This is an important factor in attaining high
audio quality. By contrast a USB2 connector can transfer a lot of noise
from the source, particularly if that source is a server or a desktop
computer, although laptop computers are generally much cleaner than
either servers or desktops. The digital inputs are housed on a small
daughterboard, and it is possible that an alternative input board may
also be offered in future with a USB input option capable of a full 192
kHz/24bit transfer rate. In fact, over the life of the machine, EMM Labs
may offer various upgrades, both hardware and software, to keep the
owners up to date. All inputs, including from the internal Esoteric
drive, use EMM Labs’ proprietary MFAST (Meitner Frequency Acquisition
System) asynchronous input mechanism. MFAST appeared first in the DAC2
and has been further refined for this application. Used in place of the
more familiar Phased Lock Loop (PLL), MFAST eliminates jitter from the
input stream rather than merely attenuation it, and locks rapidly to the
incoming signal.

The Clock

EMM Labs have developed their own high speed clock module, the
MCLK-1, which they claim sets new records is sub-picosecond jitter
measurements. There is now general agreement that the reduction of
jitter is a key to maintaining phase coherency and special integrity or
the audio output and no expense has been spared here in this vital
component or its power supply. Unwilling to surrender its competitive
advantage, EMM Labs would only say the clock generator is not based on
crystals or atoms. In the interior picture, the central of the 3 large
modules on the upper circuit board is the MCLK-1 module.

The DAC

Here’s a component that really didn’t need any improvement. Ed
Meitner’s DAC (MDAC-1 module) is a fully discreet, dual differential
design which upsamples all signals to 5.6 MHz, twice the frequency of
the SACD standard. This DAC features a further refinement of MDAT
(Meitner Digital Audio Translator) processing, which avoids both pre and
post ringing and preserves all phase information. Conventional DACs
convert a digital signal to analog by passing it through a
reconstruction filter using interpolation to smooth the analog waveform,
which leads to a perfectly flat frequency response but errors in the
time domain which show up as audible ringing. MDAT works by dynamically
adapting to the transient nature of the musical signal – the exact
opposite of the traditional one-size-fits-all algorithm. There have been
some small changes in the DAC. Ed believes it is not possible to avoid
non-linearities in chip based DACs which is why he prefers the far more
expensive discreet component approach. The two converters are better
isolated from each other and they are fed by a higher quality power
supply. In the interior picture, the 2 modules on either side of the
clock module on the upper circuit board are the left and right MDAC-1
modules.

The Output Circuitry

Perhaps the biggest innovation over previous EMM Labs designs is the
output stage. Unlike the CDSA SE or DAC2, which use high quality op
amps in a multi stage output section, Ed Meitner wanted a single Class A
output stage with the shortest possible signal path. He achieved this
by using discreet components of the highest quality, combining all the
necessary filtering, buffering and amplification into that one stage.
Simpler is better.

The Control Mechanism

Virtually all CD players use a microprocessor to control the user
interface and display logic. EMM Labs prefers to use instead a state
machine. This has the advantage that it does not introduce a new source
of pollution into the system, but it is by no means as flexible as a
microprocessor can be. As a result, while we can vary the display
brightness to four levels, and have all the usual track access and scan
buttons, we can only see the track number and elapsed time for this
track. All the controls work very well and the display is very readable
at a distance, but the layout of the identical looking buttons takes
some getting used to. The remote control is a very nicely milled
aluminum device, a good step up from the plastic wand that accompanies
the CDSA SE. When asked why we couldn’t have a more intuitive and
ergonomic interface, the answer I was given is the Ed does not like to
inflate the cost of his products on improvements that do not directly
relate to the sound quality.

Before we turn to the audio performance, let me point out that this
unit has a much more luxurious and responsive feel than the CDSA SE, as
befits its $25,000 price, and is a much more flexible unit by virtue of
its digital inputs, not available on the lower priced unit. Once again
Ed specifies aerospace-grade composite laminate circuit boards. The
picture does not reveal the presence of a second circuit board mounted
below the visible one. It contains the logic boards for the state
machine, the RS232, USB and external IR connections and other non audio
path componentry. On the back you have analog balanced (5V) and
unbalanced (2.5V) outputs, plus digital outputs over AES/EBU and EMM
Labs high resolution Optilink. The internal layout is so perfect it’s a
shame the top cover is not a glass window so we could admire it from
time to time. The one thing missing is a high/low output switch. EMM
Labs components are often used in professional studios, and this switch
was provided on earlier models for matching studio requirements for high
output. This component is priced out of reach for such commercial
applications, so this switch is not longer required. The big question of
course is whether it is priced out of reach for audiophiles too.
Certainly we’ll need a lot more than a more responsive remote control
and some digital inputs to justify the asking price. It will need to be a
big musical step up from the CDSA SE.

The Music

Unquestionably, the XDS1 is the best SACD player I have ever heard.
The increase in realism over the already fine CDSA SE leaves me at a
loss for words. Don’t worry, I’ll find a few and put them down here for
you, but let me simply say for now that this is for me the new reference
SACD player, and I’m just going to have to trade in the CDSA SE and
pack up the Linn Sondek LP12 because I’ve now found what I’ve always
been looking for, the absolutely convincing and easy to use source
component. Blacks are blacker, dynamic range is unrestricted, frequency
response as flat as a pancake and imaging holographic. Music appears
unfettered by all the usual imperfections.

Of course you’ll need some dam good equipment to go with it, but you
can do astonishingly well with a pair of Sennheiser HD800 headphones and
a really good head amp like the Graham Slee Solo for under $3000. My
speakers, the Wilson Benesch Act 1s have never sounded this good before,
aided and abetted by a Parasound JC-2 preamp and the latest Bryston 4B
amp, all wired together with Nordost Valhalla cables.

I didn’t take as many notes as usual while listening, because I kept
getting carried away with the music, but I’ll give you some highlights.
Let me get the bad news out of the way first. One recording which I had
thought pretty highly of before, Ravel’s Bolero played by the Minnesota
Orchestra under Stanislaw Skrowaczewski [MFSL UDSACD 4002] turns out to
have a number of the string players very slightly out of tune. On
previous plays the strings merged nicely together, but the greater
resolution proffered by the XDS1 reveals the slight discord and sharply
lowers my enjoyment. That one recording aside, every other disc gave me
new insights and increased musical thrills. Here’s the play-by-play.

SACD Recordings

Ivan Fischer - Brahms First Symphony [CCS SA 28309]

The XDS1 pulls furthest away from the CDSA SE on complex large scale
pieces where its higher resolution, stronger bass extension and
improved dynamics are most easily assessed. You can hear the hall
itself, one listener remarked. It is so hard to get the power of a
symphony orchestra in full cry into your living room without losing the
precise imaging you can get in smaller scale works, and without a
softening of transients as the volume level rises. What we get here is
big time linearity, and that’s what makes it all so convincing. What a
performance!

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue [CS 64935]

The improvements here are certainly more marginal, since the CDSA SE
does such a superb job already. Yes there are some small details I
hadn’t noticed before, and the image is a little better defined, but if
this is the kind of music you like to listen to, I would not pay the
extra.

Coleman Hawkins – The Hawk Flies High [MFSL UDSACD 2030]

This disc again gains very little from the CDSA SE, which was doing
it full justice already. It’s a delight from start to finish on either
machine.

MA on SA [Crystal cables]

Small scale music but this time superbly recorded. The CDSA does a
superb job here but it is left in the dust by the XDS1 which reveals
depths, subtleties and tonal beauty the CDSA simply misses. The piano
tone on Gabriella Kafer’s Chopin Barceuse is fuller, darker and richer,
better suiting the material. Paganini’s Carnival of Venice is both more
intricate and more dynamic than before while Kalman Olah’s Improvisation
on a Love Song, always a stand out, is now a peerless testimony to how
little the recording process can impinge on a live performance. The
perfectly black background and impeccable transient response and sustain
capture the improvisatory nature of this performance to the fullest.

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