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My New Emotiva DAC

I posted this on Audio Asylum/digital as well.

I took delivery a few days ago for a refurbished Emotiva dac. So far, I only have very positive things to say about it. All my observations is with the dac in my system using my choices of music. I am very impressed with the build quality. The layout is nice and open and the dac has many high quality audiophile parts inside. There are no less than 6 digital inputs so I won't have to worry about growing out of the unit for quite a while.

The dac is dead quiet. I get no ticks or pops when switching the digital inputs. Presently, I have my HP laptop with an external 1 terrabyte usb3 drive running J rivers Media Center 16 hooked up to the usb input with a Kimber usb cable. I also have my Sony SCD777ES sacd player hooked up to the coaxial input using Emotiva's x Digital coax cable. I spent a lot of time comparing the dac in my sacd player with the dac in the Emotiva and they sound remarkibly similar yet the Emotiva sounds more musical. I am extremely pleased with the sound via usb and I have been listening to my music rips which are all in FLAC mode.

I have heard some say this dac is cold and lifeless and others say the bass is boomy and treble is tizzy, but not so in my system. Maybe my tube preamp helps a bit. I am extremely fussy and very pleased. One Audiogoner told me the dac is a "piece of crap", but again it sounds absolutely wonderful in my system.

I feel my system has made quite a leap forward and feel I will be satisified for quite some time. Notice the picture of the interior of the dac. I feel I have made a very wise purchase.

Bob
128x128stereo5
glenfihi
525 posts
 
Emotiva DAC arrived and is now installed in my primary system. Set up to feed my MAC integrated and Acurus SS system. First impressions really good. Out the box you realize it has some heft to it, starting with the remote control. The look of the XDA-1 goes well with the MA 6600. The sound fed from my cd player and Apple TV, which was the main reason for the purchase of a DAc, is not smoke and mirrors. Even at this early date it is sounding great. I can tell little too no difference in the audio fed from the XDA-1 and direct from my cd player analog XLR outs. As I think the cd player is quite excellent that is a good sign. Further comparisons to come.

First on my list was the Cambridge DAC Plus. I find I value the remote control of the XDA-1 more than I would have the headphone output of the Plus and the wireless feature at least in this setup really not needed. And at a third the price it was a no brainer for myself. Glad this one did not get away.
audiofreak32's avatar
audiofreak32
281 posts
 
It is amazing how good a DAC can sound vs. any CD player. Some people do not understand what can happen when you take away the CD deck, the spinning disc, the optics, power supply and jitter and just feed data into a decent DAC.

I owned a W4S DAC-2 and was very pleased. I recently moved into a LINN Akurate DS. I feel discless is the way to go. I sit in my listening chair with an iPad and have access to all my music... cannot beat it.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,355 posts
 
After a couple of weeks of using the Emotiva dac, you will suddenly realize the bass is more "there" as are other aspects to the sound. So, if you think it sounds good right out of the box, just wait a couple of weeks. You will be pleasantly surprised.
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