The Emotiva XDA-1

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.

The volume issues was also my main concern, knowing that it could be bypassed is a big plus for me.

The volume control is a feature built into the actual Analog Devices digital-to-analog converter IC that the XDA-1 uses. Simply set to zero attenuation at which time it acts like a converter without the volume feature. Bypass is a non-issue as the volume control adds no extra signal path.

Thanks for clearing that up, Jimangie, I was kind of confused about that one. I did not make it back into the room to confirm their comments regarding using the XDA-1 strictly as a DAC. Do you know how you set the unit to zero attenuation? It does not seem like the display has much room for any kind of menu comments. Have you seen an XDA-1 manual?

UPDATE: The email arrived that annouced my opportunity to purchase an XDA-1, but I decided not to buy it. I thought I could use the XDA as a pre- and as a source, if I could pipe sound into it from my laptop, but with all the techno garbage I'd have to deal with (audio over USB, iTunes vs FooBAR vs XP64, low hard drive space, driver conflicts, bleh), I'd have to update my OS or buy a new laptop to use as a music server. In the end, if I don't get shot down by tech conflicts, I'll have spent enough to have bought a pre-/CDP, if not in $$$ than certainly in time. I'll DAC the CDP I buy later. Keeping it simple for now.