Digital music replay can feel like wearing someone else’s shoes—rarely do you get a perfect fit. Whether too loose, too tight or too lumpy, getting digital right can be an elusive task.
The EMM Labs DA2 V2 DAC paired with the EMM Labs NS1 Streamer (review) felt custom made for my musical preferences, getting the balancing act just right between resolution and body, making digitally stored music feel human, again.
From EMM Labs:
Our multi-award winning MDAT2™ DSP has been refined and updated to synergistically work with the new 16xDSD MDAC2™. The new MDAT2™ DSP does real-time transient detection, processing and up-conversion of all incoming audio, PCM and DSD, before sending it to the new 16xDSD DACs.
Key Features
16xDSD proprietary discrete dual differential D-to-A converters (MDAC2™)
New high High/Low output gain control Latest generation Meitner Digital Audio Translator signal processing technology (MDAT2™)
Enhanced technology for instant signal acquisition and jitter-free performance (MFAST™)
Proprietary asynchronous clocking system (MCLK2™)
USB interface with custom hardware galvanic isolation
Up to 24bit/192kHz & DSD support over all inputs
2xDSD, DXD (352/384kHz) & MQA® support over USB
User controlled signal polarity
Custom aerospace-grade ceramic circuit boards
EMM Optilink for transport or streamer connection
Precision-machined aluminum chassis & remote control
Service USB port for future software upgrades
RS-232 serial port for wired remote control
If you don’t already know, Ed Meitner is the man behind EMM Labs and he also had more than a hand in the development of digital audio technology, especially the development of DSD/SACD, so if you want to argue with the approach taken in the DA2 to convert bits to analog waves, be my guest. To put a finer point on it, the method of D/A conversion in the flagship DA2 is designed and built, from the ground on up, in Calgary, Canada which is where EMM Labs calls home. “We’re not willing to accept the inherent non-linearities of every mass-market chip created to date. Neither should you.”
The DA2 offers a host of digital inputs including EMM’s proprietary Optilink interface, which I used throughout this review along with the EMM Labs NS1 Streamer (review). To my mind, they are to be considered permanent partners seeing as they were literally made for one another. I used Roon to control playback and connected the DA2 to a few different amps with a pair of AudioQuest FireBird RCAs.
The DA2 got an extensive workout during its Barn stay. Beginning with the Big System (review) where it was partnered with all EMM Labs electronics driving the Credo Cinema LTM Speakers, the EMM Labs Reference DAC also saw playtime with the stunning Riviera Labs APL10 Preamplifier / AFM25 Monoblock Amplifiers (more info) driving the DeVore O/96 and Credo EV 1202 Ref. loudspeakers (more info), to more modest company like the Q Acoustics Concept 50 speakers (review) powered by the PrimaLuna Evo 300 (review). While I kinda take the opposite approach to source-first advocates, loudspeakers offering the potential for the most dramatic change in a system’s sound, the DA2’s smoothly refined character made every system shine.
The DA2 is big and heavy for a DAC, and its build quality is pretty superb. I enjoy the no-nonsense industrial design marrying brushed aluminum with matte black accents along with the heavily embossed logo and model name, giving you a nice sense of the chassis thickness.
The front panel display offers the track title and file sample rate, along with access, in conjunction with the button bar and its context sensitive function buttons directly below, to a number of menu options. These include adjusting the display’s contrast and brightness and assigning up to two of the DA2 V2 inputs to the front panel buttons.
Let’s start with a standout quality—the DA2 delivers bass that’s plump, rich and ripe ready for picking like a Roxbury Russet in late September. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard better from digital. Whether we’re talking about fat acoustic bass, slappy electronic boogie bass, or Barn shaking electronic nearly subsonic rumble, the DA2 gets every aspect of these distinct sounds so right, I nearly laughed out loud listening to familiar tracks sounding reinvented and more fully fleshed out down low than I’m accustomed to. This kind of difference is obvious and infectious, something I’ll surely miss when its gone along with the DA2’s return to its maker.
Delicate acoustic music sounded as plucky and delightful as I’ve heard, with acoustic guitar sounds glistening off its strings just like real life. I’ve got a few Barn guitars, 2x acoustic and 1x electric, that I play (poorly) so I’m reminded of what different guitars sound like whenever the feeling moves me. So when I say that the DA2 gets the sound of an acoustic guitar right, I’m speaking from a real life regularly heard reference. When the sounds of instruments startle with live-like realness, music reproduction morphs into a direct experiencing of the music and performers at hand. No barriers, no distractions, just a mainline to the heart of the matter which is all I want from a hifi.
The DA2 also gets the space of the recording damn near perfect (perfection is overrated), turning the Barn into an intimate studio setting, massive cathedral, bedroom, barroom, ballroom, stadium, and more, turning my space into the recorded space like some architectural magician. From the crazily long reverb trails on Fritz Hauser’s Solo Drumming recorded in the Martin-Gropius-Bau’s glass roofed massive courtyard, to the hotel room intimacy of Springsteen’s Nebraska, the place of the recording took up residence in Barn, effortlessly moving walls and ceiling to fit the recording. Nice.
Digital reproduction can have a hard time with sweet and sour, the subtle tonal shadings that give things their unique voice (otherwise known as harmonic structure). Whether we’re focused on Adrianne Lenker’s “music for indigo” from instrumentals and its acoustic guitar mixed with the natural sounds around her, to Anohni’s trembling vocals on “One Dove” from Antony and The Johnsons The Crying Light, to Frances-Marie Uitti’s cello on Giacinto Scelsi Natura Renovatur, I was served a rich palette of flavors that felt fully formed and fleshed out. To my way of experiencing, getting the voice of things right gets us a long way to real emotional connection, which is exactly where I want to be. The Rolling Stones “Lady Jane” from Flowers offers a lovely bouquet of sounds with distinct voices and the DA2 gave as rich and distinctive a rendering as I’ve had the pleasure to hear in Barn.
Part and parcel of an engaging experience that transcends reproduction is an appropriate sense of scale. It’s the little things presented as such and in relation to bigger things that creates a sense of drama in music reproduction and once again the EMM Labs DA2 worked as sonic excavator from micro to macro in perfect, OK damn near perfect, proportion. Hauschka’s “I Can’t Express My Deep Love” from What If pairs prepared and player pianos with electronics (Roland Jupiter 4 synthesizer and an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer) in a vast space and the DA2 presented this wonderful assortment of sounds, from tiny blips to clustered chords with amazing dexterity.
Balkan: Honey and Blood from Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI is a deep dish of music belonging to many living traditions that make up the vast mosaic of musical cultures of the Balkan peoples and their Gypsy and Sephardic diasporas. As wide an array of sounds and textures as you’re likely to hear in one helping, the DA2 conveyed the mosaic of textures, tones, and movements from the tiniest pluck to swarm of strings with balletic grace. Stunning.
I could go on (and on) singing the praises of the DA2 with countless musical examples but I see no need. The EMM Labs DA2 V2 Reference Stereo DAC is among the finest converters I’ve had the pleasure to experience, turning digitally stored music back into flesh and blood and bone.
EMM Labs DA2 V2 Reference Stereo DAC
Price: $30,000
Company Website: EMM Labs
US Distributor Website: Audioshield Audio Distribution
Specifications
Digital Inputs:
EMM Optilink (CD/SACD)
AES/EBU, 2x S/PDIF Coax, 2x S/PDIF, TOS & USB up to 24bit/192kHz and DSD
USB also supports 2xDSD, DXD (352/384kHz) & MQA®
Stereo Analog Outputs: XLR and RCA
Output Impedance: 300 ohms balanced (XLR) | 150 ohms unbalanced (RCA)
Output Levels (High/Low): XLR outputs: 7.0/5.0V (+19.1/16.2dBu) | RCA outputs: 3.5/2.5V (+13.1/10.2dBu)
Dimensions: W x D x H: 438 x 400 x 161mm
Weight: 17.2kg
