My New Emotiva DAC

This is a review of the XDA-1 by Emotiva . My goal in buying this DAC was to downgrade my system. Yes Downgrade. I had planned to sell off some of my more expensive stuff only to later come back next year sometime with a 2000 dollar DAC. The DAC to be replaced was the Audio GD- MK19 3 A very well respected and reviewed DAC. My expectations of the XDA-1 were low but I felt I would be able to live with it until I could rebound with my higher end DAC. It seems that the XDA-1 is a discontinued model. The price is already marked down from a low 249.00 to a “fell off the truck” price of 199.00 and free shipping
The amount of inputs available at that price was all the more reason to be suspect of its performance.
Was I ever wrong? While I admit to having low expectations, they were exceeded as soon as I plugged the unit in. Listening to cuts I know every nuance of; it sounded as good as my Audio-GD DAC.
I was expecting a clear drop off in performance. I listened and listened. The sound stage was just as wide (if not a tad wider) and the depth was a dead tie. This bothered me. Something has to be wrong.
Spatial memory is fleeting, so I went to certain cues that I was very familiar with. The drum solo from Blue Monk and the 5 spot café Still holographic and musical. Tony Benet and Bill Evans, doing Days of Wine and Roses . Yep, still heard the studio reverb. Still I would not accept this. I decided to do A/B testing to get to the bottom of this.

I would have to use coax on one and Fiber on the other but all other things would be equal and to be fair I would switch cables so both would use the others cable.
As soon as I began the test the difference jumped out at me. Output. The audio-GD had more output.
Without having some kind of measuring equipment, I would guestimate about a 4db difference in sound. This unexpected find made AB testing not so AB. Every time I switched from one to the other I had to turn the sound up or down. Being that this DAC is also a digital pre-amp I would have thought that it might have had more output not less. When it was all said and done the only thing that somewhat struck me was that the Xda-1 presentation seemed a little more relaxed. One could say that the Audio-GD was more focused. In my view the Audio-gd should have blown the XDA1 out of the water. While I have not tried it as a preamp, just as a DAC alone it the best kept secret and best value in audio. By the time you read this they may all be gone. Tough break for you… If you have a chance and are on a budget, then this is the DAC to buy. BTW the sheer Eye Candy “value is nicer looking than I have seen on DACS at 1 to 1 thousand dollars . All at a, “Fell off the truck” price.

Thanks Bob and KB for your impressions. At the price/features it would seem hard to match. Your actual use has made me finally pull the plug and order one this morning. Hoping that it will provide just the quality sound link needed to engage my system.

I am positive that it will. Enjoy your new dac. It took a couple of days for mine to break in. I used the Isotek cd to burn it in faster. I also added an aftermarket Shunyata Diamondback Platinum (bought used here for 100.00) cord and it made the overall experience just a little bit better. Have fun

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.

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.