EMM Labs XDS1 CD Player
Canadian brand EMM Labs is best known for its high-end SACD players and professional D/A converters, such as the EMM Labs XDS1.
The company’s owner, Ed Meitner, pioneered the use of DSD conversion, which was subsequently developed by Philips and Sony into a world standard.
The XDS1 is a two-channel only CD/SACD player which looks much like its predecessor, but there are important changes under the skin. The most prominent is a switch from the Philips-derived mechanism to one sourced from the esoteric division of Teac.The new power supply has three levels of active filtering for each polarity of each channel and each stage of the dual-differential audio path. The XDS1 also employs hand-matched capacitors in its audio path.
Most digital players perform D/A conversion using a reconstruction filter with interpolation (oversampling) to smooth the analogue waveform, which works well in the analogue domain, but less so in the time domain where the tradeoff is pre and/or post ringing, depending on the filter design. In the case of the XDS1, the proprietary MDAT processing is said to preserve phase, frequency and dynamic integrity, with no pre or post ringing.
Another proprietary technology replaces the usual phase lock loop with MFAST – Meitner Frequency Acquisition System Technology – which is said to lock onto any digital data. Rather than attenuating jitter, EMM Labs claim is that MFAST completely strips jitter from the datastream. Included in this player is a digital input which reclocks the incoming data locally to mitigate jitter imported from an external source. Digital inputs are available in Toslink and AES/EBU (balanced) form.
Thinking of treating yourself and your listening room to one of these in the new year? Then read on:
As an independent online merchant, Martin Anderson UK offers a wide range of top-end hi-fi equipment, be it new, demo or pre-owned. We are delighted to announce that as part of our new stock arrival, we now have EMM Labs XDS1 for sale. Be the first to order EMM Labs XDS1 online starting from 9350 GBP.
For more Sources and other Hi-Fi separates get in touch at martinandersonuk.com