January 2015



World Premiere!
EMM Labs XDS1v2 With MDAT2 CD/SACD Reference Player / Converter
State-of-the-digital-art has been updated!
Review By Phil Gold

  Ah, it's good to be alive. (Editor's Note: Mel Brooks says "It's good to be King"). That's what I thought today as I listened to Mozart's 40^th Symphony in a superlative performance and recording on the Linn label, conducted by a Mozart specialist in his eighties with all the verve and swagger only a teenager might normally exhibit.

EMM Labs XDS1 CD/SACD Player
EMM Labs Pre 2
YG Carmel Speakers
Nordost Valhalla Cables

All of these reference quality components are highly praised for their transparency, imaging and dynamics, and they combine together to produce effortless musicality, the kind that has you air conducting and stamping your feet in time to the music. But they've never sounded like this before. Today I found myself listening to the musicians – the HiFi just disappeared. The amazing thing is that this remarkable upgrade came free. Let me tell you about it.

Ed Meitner and his team at EMM Labs are never satisfied, always looking to improve, and keen to bring those improvements to their existing clients. Let's take the XDS1 CD/SACD Reference Player and Converter I reviewed as an example. It debuted in 2009 and I reviewed it in April 2010.My conclusion for this $25,000 item?

In every single area of performance, resolution, timing, transient response, decay, image size and depth, frequency response, dynamics and tone color, the XDS1 improves on all digital players I have heard before. I'm sure one day this machine will be surpassed, and maybe that will be by some future model from Ed Meitner, but for now, this is the state-of-the-art, and as musically satisfying a machine as I could wish.

Five years have brought two major upgrades, along with a number of running improvements to sub systems such as the power supply. The first major change was to the inputs. In 2012, the v2 designation indicated a new input system, adding a coax input, an asynchronous streaming USB input ready to support DSD over PCM (DOP) from computer files, and all four digital inputs now support up to 24-bit/192kHz. Improvements first introduced in the DAC2X processor to the DAC section and power supply module were also incorporated in this update.

Here is the press release for the V2 upgrade, which requires a return to the factory and does involve a fee.

XDS1 V2
The award winning XDS1 has been updated with a whole new digital system based on the DAC2X. The XDS1 has now all new COAXIAL, TOSLINK, AES and USB inputs. Each able to support up to 24bit 192kHz. USB input also supports DSD streaming as well.

MFAST technology for instant signal acquisition, jitter-free performance and Meitner Digital Audio Translator (MDAT™) signal processing technology has also been updated.

XDS1 V2 Specifications... (see bottom of review for complete specifications)
MSRP $25,000 USA    Shipping January 2015

I noticed a significant increase in resolution with this upgrade, and performance on USB DSD streaming was immaculate. I could play the same track on an SACD and from my computer with DSD streaming, and I was unable to detect any difference in sound using A/B switching or long periods of listening. But the main improvement was simply the increased input flexibility rather than to the actual sound quality. The second major change from MDAT to MDAT2 is a firmware upgrade some twelve months in the making and is an audio advance of major proportions. This same upgrade is available to current EMM Labs and Meitner Audio products.

Here's the press release, issued August 2014:

More than a year in development and testing, EMM Labs and Meitner Audio is proud to announce the release of our MDAT2 DSP update that will take all our current DAC platforms (DAC2X, XDS1 V2, MA-1, MA-2) to that next level in audio performance.

MDAT is our high performance multi-award winning DSP engine. It takes all digital audio (PCM and DSD) and does real-time transient filtering and up-conversion to 2xDSD (5.6Mhz/6.1Mhz) before being sent to Ed`s proprietary custom made 2xDSD (5.6Mhz/6.1Mhz) DACs (MDAC modules) for conversion to analog.

With MDAT processing, there is no pre and post ringing (please see the charts below), which is why MDAT unlike any other processing technology is unique in its ability to preserve the phase, frequency and dynamic integrity of the waveform.

In MDAT2 we have built an improved new DSP engine with:

• Increased sonic detail from all digital audio streams (PCM and DSD) using new high-resolution algorithms.

• Time and frequency response filters that are greatly optimized  

• A new signal processing engine that is built for very high-precision audio up-sampling (2xDSD up-conversion).

• A new more accurate 2xDSD up-sampling algorithm

Think of it as supercharging your DAC! Accuracy, transparency, soundstage, low level detail all greatly improved and refined. All these improvements providing the listener with a more immersive experience and bringing further all music to life. The best thing is….you will receive this new MDAT2 engine for free! For those with current EMM Labs (DAC2X, XDS1 V2) or Meitner Audio (MA-1, MA-2) products contact your dealer or distributor to schedule the update being released shortly after the HK Show (middle of August 2014). MDAT and MDAT2 are both patented. Associated algorithms are patent pending.

The buzz on the net is that MDAT2 DSP is a spectacular upgrade, and I agree wholeheartedly. So what was there left to improve? The original XDS1 had excellent resolution, strong imaging, wide bandwidth, major musicality and tremendous reflexes. Those characteristics are all still there in this upgrade, and they have been improved upon. But what's new is an increased density and presence throughout the spectrum, most notably in the lowest registers. No one can accuse the latest version of being too analytical. This one has balls, it has heart, it has muscle on top of its amazing purity and accuracy. These things don't normally go together. Purity and weight often come at the expense of each other. Without question the earlier XDS1 was the benchmark for purity. Some will have felt it too analytical, although thin would have been an unfair criticism.

I didn't find that every recording sounded better – some were exemplary before and remain so after the updates. But the majority of recordings are now easier to listen to, because there is a greater ease, a more musical flow, greater musical density, more meat on the bone. I would attribute this to improved phase accuracy with gives a more precise location to every instrument, and a top end which is quite without parallel in the digital sphere. Listen to the cymbals, a choir, or jazz piano – all more lifelike than ever.

I've played discs on the demonstration class end of the spectrum. Take Mozart's Fortieth Symphony, from a Linn SACD album of late Mozart Symphonies played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the octogenarian Sir Charles Mackerras [Linn CKD 308]. The energy in the room is simply startling, the tonality to die for, the dynamics unparalled and the imaging in a whole new class. But that's not what you notice. It's all about how this particular orchestra, on this particular day, played their hearts out in a performance that would surely have delighted the composer himself. Enjoy the music? That's putting it mildly. The music comes alive in a way I have only ever experienced before with much smaller scale music.

So next I went back to some Haydn Quartets Opus 33, played on original instruments by the incomparable Quatuor Mosaïques [Astree E8810]. Yes these sounded amazing before, and now the life within the notes, the brilliance of the string tone and the dynamic range are all enhanced. Sensational performances. Best of all is Keb' Mo' on SACD [MFSL UDSACD 2054]. I've sat in the third row twice at the amazing Koerner Hall to hear Keb' Mo' play. There is such a strong attack on his array of guitars, amazing dynamics, and it's all on show here. Am I wrong?

Now take something that wasn't recorded using the most perfectly tuned instruments, something really strident from the fifties. I'm talking Brilliant Corners, the Thelonious Monk masterpiece [Riverside RISA-226-6]. The solo piano track "I Surrender, Dear" has never sounded clearer, more present. The rollicking "Bemsha Swing", featuring Monk, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Paul Chambers and the astonishing Max Roach on drums is a challenge to any system. Roach attacks both drums and timpani like a wild man, and it comes together with unmatched cohesion here. The deep bass is powerful and remarkably coherent and tuneful. The engineers have done a great job on this SACD, and Ed Meitner has brought us closer to the original recording then I've ever heard.

Did I mention Shchedrin's Second Piano Concerto, played by Marc-André Hamelin [Hyperion SACDA67425]? You will never, I repeat never, hear a more realistic recording of a concert grand. Hamelin's performance is electrifying, in a way only Horowitz or perhaps Kissin could rival. The XDS1 reveals the full force of the attack from both pianist and orchestra, and we are in a world far from conventional and even most exotic HiFi. This doesn't sound like hi-fi at all. There is none of the rounding of sharp edges, obscuring of small detail, overhang or dulling of dynamics that reminds us we are listening in our living room and not a concert hall. This digital source, when accompanied by components of equal quality, brings music to the ears that most experts are convinced digital cannot reproduce. I should mention that the YG Carmels play a big part here. They do not compress until you exceed their limits, at which time you will know about it in no uncertain terms.

The pile of discs I wanted to tell you about sits high on my writing desk. But I find myself just telling you how great this disc is, how much I love that. I'm talking always about the actual performance, and I've got nothing new to tell you about the XDS1. It just reads the digits and converts them to analog and doesn't seem to have any sound of its own. So I'll stop here.

The bar has been raised, and raised so high we are in a new era of digital. My hope is that all high end manufacturers get hold of an XDS1, or another of Ed Meitner's current series of DACs, and compare their best to his. If they can match it, that's great, and I want to hear it. If not, then knowing what is possible may drive them to new heights. Meanwhile, anyone want to buy my analog setup? In 2010 I felt the XDS1 represented the state of the art which would one day be surpassed, maybe by Ed Meitner. I haven't heard anything better all round in the meantime, although I believe it has been equaled by Meridian for Redbook audio and by Chord Electronics for SACD. But these two EMM Labs upgrades have moved the bar again, and I suspect EMM Labs now have a clear lead.

I understand Ed Meitner is not about to rest on his laurels any time soon, although he has his hands full with updates to other components and the introduction of powerful new monoblocks. So if you are really serious about digital audio and have not found anything that really satisfies, then this might be just the right time to invest. You could look at the XDS1 v2 or the DAC2X (DAC $15,500 or $30,000 bundled with the TSDX drive). At a much lower price point the Meitner MA-1 DAC ($7000) and MA-2 CD/SACD Player / DAC ($11,000) both benefit from the MDAT2 update and incorporate much of the same advanced technology as the EMM Labs Reference series components so I suggest you check those out too.

And of course if you already own one of the current range of EMM Labs or Meitner DACs or CD Players, this free update is not to be missed.

Manufacturer Comments
EMM Labs would like to thank Phil Gold for a fantastic review of the XDS1 V2 with updated MDAT2 DSP engine. Phil's conclusion makes us all at EMM Labs and Meitner Audio extremely proud. Our engineers are especially happy that the free firmware MDAT2 DSP update is greatly improving the performance of all our current products.

Shahin Al Rashid
Director of Sales

Specifications
Type: Solid-state CD and SACD player with digital to analog converter (DAC)
Supported Formats: Redbook CD and SACD 
Digital Inputs: AES/EBU XLR, TosLink, USB
PCM Input Frequencies: Up to 192Hz/24-bit on all inputs plus DSD on USB
Digital Outputs: AES/EBU and EMM Optilink
Analog Output: 300 Ohm balanced (5V peak), 150 Ohm unbalanced (2.5V)
Remote Control: Infrared
Polarity: Inversion in digital domain through remote control
System Control Input: Wired remote Serial RS 232, USB for upgrades
Power Supply: Power Factor Corrected
Voltage: 100V/115V/230V 50/60 Hz (factory set)
Display: LCD with 4 levels and off
Dimensions: 17" x 15.7" x 5.7" (WxDxH)
Weight: 37.5 lbs
Finish: Black or silver
Manufactured: Canada
Warrantee: 5 years except 1 year on drive and associated electronics
Price: $25,000

Company Information
EMM Labs Inc
119-5065 13th St SE
Calgary
Alberta
Canada T2G 5M8

Voice: (403) 225 4161
Fax: (403) 225 2330
E-mail: sales@emmlabs.com
Website: www.EMMLabs.com