Just saw the XDA-1 at RMAF, Emotiva folks told me that if you crank up the volume on this unit all the way up, the volume pot basically turns off and the outputs can be considered fixed, not variable, so it is possible to use this unit just as a DAC, and upgrade to a high-end pre later on. I will confirm this tomorrow. They said the units were "on the water" right now, and will ship in mid- to late-November. I spent about 20 minutes playing various CDs I know really well on their Emotiva system, which featured all Emotiva gear, including speakers. They were bi-amping each speaker with an XPA-1, total of four XPA's. They DAC'd their ERC-1 with the XDA-1. I thought the sound was limited a bit by the speakers, which I felt were a little weak in the mid-range, those frequencies felt pushed back a little.
The XDA-1's digital volume control moves at half-increments, so they got that part right. They could not answer for me whether the XDA's USB input was asynchronus or not. Wrong Emotiva people in the room, too many analog guys.
