Dear Michael,
I love reading your column but I am puzzled at some of your findings.
Audio Doctor, was the first dealer in the country with one of these dacs, we showed it at the 2012 and 2013 High End Audio Shows in NYC. In fact it was the Dac 2Xse's North American preview.
We also were the first dealer in the US with the Auralic Vega, we also premiered it to the North American market.
My point is we have a lot of experience with both of these companies outstanding products.
I have put the Vega side by side to the Dac 2X and there is no way the Vega is close, I will say that the Vega is still one of the best bargains in digital under $5k and the Dac sounds remarkable for its price point.
The EMM Labs Dac sounds much more like listening to a $30k plus analog rig, and there is absolutely no comparison between these two products, nor should there be considering their price differences.
The stock EMM Labs power cable is decent, the Shunyata cords are very good, but do have a tendency to make digital products considerably warmer, which can tame the top end of many digital products, however, this aural tendency can sometimes remove a bit of air and detail at the same time, which may have been the cause of some of your findings.
The stock Meitner sound is very clean and clear without a lot of editorializing. The Dac is not bright but it is not warm either, so it all comes down to taste and system matching.
We have used the remarkable Enklein Power Cords for several years now, with the EMM Labs equipment and if you want to really hear what this Dac can do add a Taurus, Trex, or a David power cable, you will find out just how remarkable this dac really is!
We have also used the Less Loss Black body which also did seem to improve the dac, and we also routinely use really top of the line power conditioning, Audio Magic's Oracle, and when we compared the two Dacs in our reference system again no contest EMM Labs Dac 2X by a long margin, I have been doing this professionally for over 25 years and I have yet to hear a Dac that really beats the DAC 2XSe with the latest firmware.
We do have a pre production EMM Labs new top of the line DA2 and it is even better with a gigantic sound-stage and a more fleshed out sense of space and overall realism, you should hear it is magnificent.
If you are in the NYC area I would invite you over to hear our reference setup for yourself, and to corroborate my findings.