Esoteric K-01Xs vs EMM Labs DA2 Reference

[gadawg]

Just a quick update here as I'm still trying to ensure the unit is fully broken in across all upsampling rates .... Had some friends over recently and everyone still agreed that the EMM Labs was still in the lead. Then, last week I finally took the leap and replaced all my stock or fairly cheap AQ NRG4 power cords with Transparent Reference Cords and added the Reference Isolator being fed by an XL Powercord. Obviously I wasn't much on the power cord bandwagon before but I get it now ... one of the biggest changes I've ever made to the system! That said ... with all new power cords in place I flipped over to the K-01XS and noticed that the gap between the EMM Labs DA-2 Ref and the K-01XS has been substantially narrowed. Maybe even to the point of it being really hard to tell. Will make sure I finish getting enough hours across all upsampling rates before I do another shoot out but the Esoteric did seem to benefit substantially more from a better PC than did the EMM Labs. More to come ...

George