Emm da2 dac

Phishphan

Phishphan

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Joined
Sep 15, 2017
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Location
Boynton Beach, FL
I’m in the hunt for a new DAC and had the opportunity to hear the DA2 today at the house of a fellow audiophile. I sold the guy my Esoteric Grandioso K1 a few months back and got to be friends with him. We were chatting about my search, and he told me I HAD to come hear his newest piece of gear. The rest of the system was a Ayre preamp, KEF Blades powered by boulder 2060 amp, and the DA2 was fed by a Mac mini tricked out by a company called “your final system”... no clue who they are. It was kind of a hodgepodge of brands, but this guy seems to rotate out gear like I change socks.

I was completely floored at how amazing the DA2 sounded. We spent about an couple hours playing around with his collection of high end DACs and transports, and I can tell you nothing sounded even as good as the DA2. Even my old K1 sounded downright flat and 2D compared to the wall to wall semi circle of sound the DA2 created. The depth and placement was simply incredible. The closest any of his gear came to the DA2 was a dCS Vivaldi DAC with the Upsampler, which has a price tag of over double the DA2. He also had an MSB DAC V, that seemed to excel in mid range and bass, but was too bright sounding.

We listened to a few Medeski, Martin & Wood tracks that made my jaw drop. The bass line was so clear and detailed, the drums had a air around them I’ve never experienced before. Then I put on my favorite test track, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones - Sinister Minister from the Live Art album. I always find Victor Wooten’s bass solo to be a workout for a system. The DA2 handled it flawlessly.

EMM wasn’t even on my radar until today, as I’ve been thinking MSB. That changed today. The EMM is at the top of my short list, and I may end up going that direction.

At 25k it isn’t cheap, but if you’re in the market for a DAC, do yourself a favor and put this on your list.



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You may want to add to your list the new MSB Premier. I auditioned it at home for a weekend recently. I was very impressed with it.
 
There’s actually a MSB reference on agon for 20k. If you’re buying. Go snatch it up


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Phishphan said:
There’s actually a MSB reference on agon for 20k. If you’re buying. Go snatch it up


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Click to expand...

His ads look suspicious to me. He provides no actual photos of any of the items for sale and uses the same text for each item. He also hasn’t posted on Audiogon in 15 years.
 
Mike said:
His ads look suspicious to me. He provides no actual photos of any of the items for sale and uses the same text for each item. He also hasn’t posted on Audiogon in 15 years.
Click to expand...

Didn’t notice that.


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Love my DA2 for sure! I agree with the comment about the wall to wall sound. Never heard digital create this type of holographic soundstage. Don't know if its totally accurate or not but it sure is fun!

George
 
Phishphan said:
I’m in the hunt for a new DAC and had the opportunity to hear the DA2 today at the house of a fellow audiophile. I sold the guy my Esoteric Grandioso K1 a few months back and got to be friends with him. We were chatting about my search, and he told me I HAD to come hear his newest piece of gear. The rest of the system was a Ayre preamp, KEF Blades powered by boulder 2060 amp, and the DA2 was fed by a Mac mini tricked out by a company called “your final system”... no clue who they are. It was kind of a hodgepodge of brands, but this guy seems to rotate out gear like I change socks.

I was completely floored at how amazing the DA2 sounded. We spent about an couple hours playing around with his collection of high end DACs and transports, and I can tell you nothing sounded even as good as the DA2. Even my old K1 sounded downright flat and 2D compared to the wall to wall semi circle of sound the DA2 created. The depth and placement was simply incredible. The closest any of his gear came to the DA2 was a dCS Vivaldi DAC with the Upsampler, which has a price tag of over double the DA2. He also had an MSB DAC V, that seemed to excel in mid range and bass, but was too bright sounding.

We listened to a few Medeski, Martin & Wood tracks that made my jaw drop. The bass line was so clear and detailed, the drums had a air around them I’ve never experienced before. Then I put on my favorite test track, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones - Sinister Minister from the Live Art album. I always find Victor Wooten’s bass solo to be a workout for a system. The DA2 handled it flawlessly.

EMM wasn’t even on my radar until today, as I’ve been thinking MSB. That changed today. The EMM is at the top of my short list, and I may end up going that direction.

At 25k it isn’t cheap, but if you’re in the market for a DAC, do yourself a favor and put this on your list.



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Click to expand...

Hi Phishphan

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts on the DA2 in comparison to the dCS Vivaldi DAC with the Upsampler and the MSB DAC. I owned one and you are right - the DA2 is exceptional! The "air" around instruments and drums was palpable
 
Hi Phishphan

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Emm Labs DA2 in comparison to the DCS Vivaldi dac with the Upsampler and the MSB DAC V. You said that the Emm labs DA2 (I owned one) is amazing and I concur! However, have you heard the new MSB reference dac? Care to share what you think of the MSB reference dac in comparison to the Emm Labs DA2? Thanks!
 
Thank you for joining the forum. Sorry I took so long to respond.
 
joeinid said:
Thank you for joining the forum. Sorry I took so long to respond.
Click to expand...

Hi joeinid. Thank you for accepting me (I thought I had said something that I should not have said!).

BTW, Kobol (at Audio Aficionado) recently (10-22-2018) posted: "I've heard AB the full Vivaldi Stack with latest upgrades vs the Emm Labs DA 2 with v2 upgrade. The naturalness and soundstage of DA-2 made it a winner.
Both equal in detail and presence.
Emm Labs has more organic sound more lifelike.
The source was Aurender W20 and / or Roon Nucleus."
 
It was not you, life just got in the way. Glad you are here.

I’m sure someone will hopefully provide some guidance. I’ve owned some Emm Labs gear awhile ago. Sounded great to me but I’m not familiar with Vivaldi.
 
Home renovation is DONE! 6 months of my room being down really sucked. But hooked up my stereo this afternoon.

I have a DA2, with the latest v2 upgrade, that came early this week and I had it burning in connected to my N10 for 4 days.

I still need to move speakers into exact position, and my acoustical treatment isn’t on my ceiling yet. My wife is begging me to not put it back up... we just refinished our ceilings.

First impressions are really good. This thing sounds amazing. Only issue is all my (bootlegged) DSD is popping. Apparently converting from ISO to DSF can cause that. There’s a work around, but enough of that.. I’ll just do the right thing and pay for the downloads.

I’m incredibly impressed. It sounds SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Esoteric K1, and that’s really saying something.

Time will tell... but this may be a keeper.

I have a MSB Premier coming after thanksgiving to give a whirl as well.


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Phishphan said:
Home renovation is DONE! 6 months of my room being down really sucked. But hooked up my stereo this afternoon.

I have a DA2, with the latest v2 upgrade, that came early this week and I had it burning in connected to my N10 for 4 days.

I still need to move speakers into exact position, and my acoustical treatment isn’t on my ceiling yet. My wife is begging me to not put it back up... we just refinished our ceilings.

First impressions are really good. This thing sounds amazing. Only issue is all my (bootlegged) DSD is popping. Apparently converting from ISO to DSF can cause that. There’s a work around, but enough of that.. I’ll just do the right thing and pay for the downloads.

I’m incredibly impressed. It sounds SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Esoteric K1, and that’s really saying something.

Time will tell... but this may be a keeper.

I have a MSB Premier coming after thanksgiving to give a whirl as well.


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Click to expand...

Hi Phishphan

Please let us know what you think of the DA2 in comparison with the MSB Premier after you are done comparing the two. Thanks. Andy
 
Yuen Andy said:
Hi Phishphan

Please let us know what you think of the DA2 in comparison with the MSB Premier after you are done comparing the two. Thanks. Andy
Click to expand...

Will do. I also need to get my room back to the way it was. I’ll work on that this weekend. Lots of measuring, SPL meters.

Even in a “raw” room that isn’t dialed in, it sounds better than any DAC I’ve ever heard.


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Hi Phishpan,

1. Many thanks.

2. When it comes to sounding natural and real, the DA2 is hard to beat!
 
Sorry for the delay here. I sprained my ankle at the Brandi Carlile show last week and I was off for a while. Still in pain, but getting better.

DSD popping issue is 100% on the N10. No issues with JRiver feeding the DA2. I’ve contacted Aurender about this, and they’re looking into it. I had engineers looking at my unit via the internet for a few hours last night.. still not fixed. Might be time to switch media players,

The DA2 has been playing for weeks, non stop. It continues to be amazing. The 3D sound is incredible.

I have a MSB Reference from a local dealer sitting in a box that I’ll get to opening soon. I’m in Miami all next week for work, so I may set it up and run it during that time for burn in.

More to follow


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Phishphan said:
Sorry for the delay here. I sprained my ankle at the Brandi Carlile show last week and I was off for a while. Still in pain, but getting better.

DSD popping issue is 100% on the N10. No issues with JRiver feeding the DA2. I’ve contacted Aurender about this, and they’re looking into it. I had engineers looking at my unit via the internet for a few hours last night.. still not fixed. Might be time to switch media players,

The DA2 has been playing for weeks, non stop. It continues to be amazing. The 3D sound is incredible.

I have a MSB Reference from a local dealer sitting in a box that I’ll get to opening soon. I’m in Miami all next week for work, so I may set it up and run it during that time for burn in.

More to follow


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Click to expand...

Hi Phishphan

1. Sorry to hear about your ankle sprain. We wish you a speedy recovery.

2. The DA2 requires some 500 hrs of burn-in to sound its best

3. It's a rare opportunity to be able to compare the DA2 with the MSB reference in a system one is familiar with. Your honest appraisal would be appreciated by all.
 
A question for the EMM Owners/users on this thread. Well, a couple of ...

MQA support was announced a while back for the DA2. I believe at RMAF 2018

However, not get into an MQA debate but, have DA2 owners received a software/firmware update yet? Or heard anything form EMM?

DA2 owners here are using third party transports to feed the DAC(Aurrender). Makes me wonder if EMM's performance could be taken higher if they had their own network rendering transport? Eg DCS Network Bridge.
 
mdp632 said:
A question for the EMM Owners/users on this thread. Well, a couple of ...

MQA support was announced a while back for the DA2. I believe at RMAF 2018

However, not get into an MQA debate but, have DA2 owners received a software/firmware update yet? Or heard anything form EMM?

DA2 owners here are using third party transports to feed the DAC(Aurrender). Makes me wonder if EMM's performance could be taken higher if they had their own network rendering transport? Eg DCS Network Bridge.
Click to expand...


The answer is No.

YFS: The DA2 will be given a moderately priced update to allow it to decode an MQA data stream as well. This will come some time in 2019.
 
mdp632 said:
A question for the EMM Owners/users on this thread. Well, a couple of ...

MQA support was announced a while back for the DA2. I believe at RMAF 2018

However, not get into an MQA debate but, have DA2 owners received a software/firmware update yet? Or heard anything form EMM?

DA2 owners here are using third party transports to feed the DAC(Aurrender). Makes me wonder if EMM's performance could be taken higher if they had their own network rendering transport? Eg DCS Network Bridge.
Click to expand...

Would love to see a EMM network transport.


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