Hello,
I'm looking to purchase this D/A unit and wanted to see what you digitalites
thoughts are on it . Posting a link to pics of the internals, comments would be appreciated as to quality of parts ( or lack thereof) , potential mods , etc ...
Emotiva Audio XDA-1 Digital-to-Analog Converter
regards,
I'm looking to purchase this D/A unit and wanted to see what you digitalites
thoughts are on it . Posting a link to pics of the internals, comments would be appreciated as to quality of parts ( or lack thereof) , potential mods , etc ... Emotiva Audio XDA-1 Digital-to-Analog Converter
regards,
hmm, well the spec is pretty average (102db SNR) and this doesnt mean everything, but OPA2134 also pretty average for the IV stage and will likely suffer digitalus as a result. also for a digital pre I would go for something that uses the internal digital volume of the dac chip, rather than a secondary digital volume control stage, which probably means another A->D and D->A and this will limit the SQ IMO.
price is right, but dont know whether the sound will be. also how many times can you use the words 'digital reference' in a paragraph.... they speak of a discrete output stage, but say notyhing of its pedigree
price is right, but dont know whether the sound will be. also how many times can you use the words 'digital reference' in a paragraph.... they speak of a discrete output stage, but say notyhing of its pedigree
I'm not an Emotiva basher - I live near their HQ in Tennessee and attended last years annual show and kinda like the idea of having a "player" in the audio field nearby. This link will point you to what some others are saying and it seems to reflect my experience with Emo (and many others also - to be fair). My position - I often wait for revision 2 - or 3 - or 4 before I jump in - esp. when it is a new product line.
Emotiva XDA-1 Initial Impressions - Audio & Video Equipment Forums
Emo does have a 30 day return policy - and from what I have seen strives very diligently to satisfy their customers. From meeting the staff etc. at the show I can vouch for the fact that they are "real" people with a passion for audio and great pride in their company and products.
Emotiva XDA-1 Initial Impressions - Audio & Video Equipment Forums
Emo does have a 30 day return policy - and from what I have seen strives very diligently to satisfy their customers. From meeting the staff etc. at the show I can vouch for the fact that they are "real" people with a passion for audio and great pride in their company and products.
well i'm not bashing, but seriously, they need to get someone to write a different info page, I just tire of this style of ad that uses words like reference repeatedly. could be a great bed for mods, but my personal experience with OPA2134 in IV is not good at all. very dry and digital.
like I said, the price is right, give it a try, I could be totally wrong. just had a read of your link, the gain issue is a bit of a deal breaker, digital volume at the very beginning of its range is limiting the DNR substantially. DAC 1 is not a favorite of mine, I find it very dry also, perhaps that is the style they are going for when they say 'reference' dry and analytical
like I said, the price is right, give it a try, I could be totally wrong. just had a read of your link, the gain issue is a bit of a deal breaker, digital volume at the very beginning of its range is limiting the DNR substantially. DAC 1 is not a favorite of mine, I find it very dry also, perhaps that is the style they are going for when they say 'reference' dry and analytical
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Hi qusp!
Emo has a web site and a forum - drop 'em a line about your thoughts and concerns. They are a small company so there isn't some huge engineering chain of command ladder to climb up or get lost in. Bear in mind - just like their competitors they are designing to hit a market target and all to often that means compromise. That point gets us back to why we do it the DIY way! Hey - most of the time DIY is a better route - and sometimes - welllllllll - let's just say that sometimes we get to learn something new and unexpected.
haha yes the magic smoke is always new and unexpected, well usually unexpected anyway I think they have it covered at the forum already, designing a dac to work with your amp and have the digital volume hardly getting off zero... I dont think letting them know my concerns on their forum when there is no chance i'm going to buy their gear is fair. for me at least DIY is rarely massively cheaper, but always more suited to my taste...in the end. chips such as the OPA211, LT1028 or OPA1641/42 are pretty reasonably priced and even going with the usual 600% markup, the difference in cost to the consumer might be 12-18 dollars, I dont know about you, but I would pay that.
unless its socketed, in which case you can just roll your own.
I think they have it covered at the forum already, designing a dac to work with your amp and have the digital volume hardly getting off zero... I dont think letting them know my concerns on their forum when there is no chance i'm going to buy their gear is fair. for me at least DIY is rarely massively cheaper, but always more suited to my taste...in the end. chips such as the OPA211, LT1028 or OPA1641/42 are pretty reasonably priced and even going with the usual 600% markup, the difference in cost to the consumer might be 12-18 dollars, I dont know about you, but I would pay that. unless its socketed, in which case you can just roll your own.
Haven't rolled my own since school daze. Swapping out op amps is another story - but that gets us into the topic of IC's or discrete circuits - and then on to power supply noise, proper circuit grounding, phase shift, capacitor of the month discussions, balanced in and outs vs. unbalanced - blah - blah - blah. DIY - Ya gotta luv it!!!
Either that or buy something off of da shelf - which brings us full circle and back to the commercially available toys. At least Emo isn't charging several mega big bucks to get into da club!!!
PC sound card instead ....
ASUS Xonar Essence ST/STX soundcards Measurements | Stereophile.com
AV100 - PCI Express - 24 bit - Internal
ASUS Xonar Essence ST/STX soundcards Measurements | Stereophile.com
AV100 - PCI Express - 24 bit - Internal
Dac opinion
Hi to all,
I got one of these Emotiva DACs, substantially discounted since I won a raffle at Emofest. I sent it back to be re-burned so that it had a digital log taper.
Haven't run it since it came back; they "fixed" the ground and now it is unusable as I get a huge ground loop whenever it is hooked up. But you can get a log taper from reburning the emprom that controls the volume.
I enjoyed it while it ran, albeit it was too loud for low-level listening, but the big problem from my standpoint was that it won't play SACD. I have some disks that don't have a redbook layer, and those that do revert to DSD output by default (and I don't have a monitor hooked up to the player to be able to make it play in redbook format, and the menu isn't accessible from the small viewscreen on the front of the player.) So I would not consider it if you think SACD or DSD is important.
The chip inside will play SACD and was designed for audio, super audio, and dvd-a, but according to Lonnie the Emotiva tech v.p., it would have raised the price by about $75 per unit to license SACD, so they left it off, thinking their target buyers would not want to pay the additional cost per unit.
And the thing is built to pro-level, big p/s, balanced inputs and outputs, full 1/2 rack cabinet, billet aluminum remote, etc.
I would love to be able to make it play SACD, which would in my mind make it a much better player.
Does anyone know if you "homebrew" a D/A converter if you have to pay to license for the SACD capability when you build it? I'd like to maybe build one of the new Pass D/A converters, so I can play my SACDs. I also wonder if it would be legal to convert your existing player to play SACD, as long as you did it for yourself and your own player?
BTW, I thought it sounded pretty good, but also haven't missed it very much since it has been gone. It does make the high end softer, and more predominant, which I attribute to it presenting the amp with a much louder signal and maybe (and more probably) because of the oversampling/filter. It can't be because I can hear at bat frequencies, since I am 47, male, and don't hear much above 16k any more.
Hi to all,
I got one of these Emotiva DACs, substantially discounted since I won a raffle at Emofest. I sent it back to be re-burned so that it had a digital log taper.
Haven't run it since it came back; they "fixed" the ground and now it is unusable as I get a huge ground loop whenever it is hooked up. But you can get a log taper from reburning the emprom that controls the volume.
I enjoyed it while it ran, albeit it was too loud for low-level listening, but the big problem from my standpoint was that it won't play SACD. I have some disks that don't have a redbook layer, and those that do revert to DSD output by default (and I don't have a monitor hooked up to the player to be able to make it play in redbook format, and the menu isn't accessible from the small viewscreen on the front of the player.) So I would not consider it if you think SACD or DSD is important.
The chip inside will play SACD and was designed for audio, super audio, and dvd-a, but according to Lonnie the Emotiva tech v.p., it would have raised the price by about $75 per unit to license SACD, so they left it off, thinking their target buyers would not want to pay the additional cost per unit.
And the thing is built to pro-level, big p/s, balanced inputs and outputs, full 1/2 rack cabinet, billet aluminum remote, etc.
I would love to be able to make it play SACD, which would in my mind make it a much better player.
Does anyone know if you "homebrew" a D/A converter if you have to pay to license for the SACD capability when you build it? I'd like to maybe build one of the new Pass D/A converters, so I can play my SACDs. I also wonder if it would be legal to convert your existing player to play SACD, as long as you did it for yourself and your own player?
BTW, I thought it sounded pretty good, but also haven't missed it very much since it has been gone. It does make the high end softer, and more predominant, which I attribute to it presenting the amp with a much louder signal and maybe (and more probably) because of the oversampling/filter. It can't be because I can hear at bat frequencies, since I am 47, male, and don't hear much above 16k any more.
This sounds rather odd.
The SACD data can't be sent across a normal SPDIF interface (wrong format, non-standard sample rate, copy restrictions). The DAC they use (AD1955 I believe) can play SACD only when its incorporated in an SACD player.Its just not possible. Sony don't want their SACD digital data getting out into the big bad world.
There might be a license fee already included in the DAC chip's purchase price, I don't know. You'd need a mechanism which can read SACD - and you'd be paying a license fee when you bought that. I don't believe its possible to convert an existing mechanism to SACD, you'll need a whole new disk mechanism.
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