New Emotiva DAC shows great promise
Oct 13, 2010 at 10:42 PM Post #16 of 63
mine mine!
smily_headphones1.gif

 
Oct 14, 2010 at 10:55 AM Post #17 of 63
I am severely tempted by this thing, although I have absolutely no need for it. The digital preamplifier function seems to be the way to go in my opinion, and I think we will be seeing it on more and more products. Let's see here...
 
XDA-1: $299
UPA-2:$349 
 
Add a laptop and some monitor speakers (I'd suggest Emo for those as well but they are all out of stock, maybe a new design coming soon?), and you have a great system for a fairly low price. I hope they make a headphone amp next, that could be great.
 
Oct 14, 2010 at 6:55 PM Post #18 of 63

 
Quote:
project86 said:
I am severely tempted by this thing, although I have absolutely no need for it. The digital preamplifier function seems to be the way to go in my opinion, and I think we will be seeing it on more and more products. Let's see here...
 
XDA-1: $299
UPA-2:$349 
 
Add a laptop and some monitor speakers (I'd suggest Emo for those as well but they are all out of stock, maybe a new design coming soon?), and you have a great system for a fairly low price. I hope they make a headphone amp next, that could be great.
Click to expand...


A great system, huh?  Have you actually heard either of these units?  The amp sounds as clinical as any run of the mill $200 pro amp.  My little Trends amp wiped the floor with the UPA-2 for musicality and naturalness, power notwithstanding.
 
At least all the fanboys who rush out and buy the dac are only parting with a small amount of audiophile money.  That is not to say that it might actually sound good.  Looks can be deceiving though, as are specs. 
 
Maybe someone should actually listen to it prior to building the bandwagon.
 
Oct 15, 2010 at 9:23 AM Post #19 of 63
Ok, true, I haven't heard them. So I should rephrase..... you COULD have a great system. I've only personally tried the ERC-1 CD player and the old BPA-1 little amp, and I liked them both for the price. Fanboys do tend to get a bit too worked up about this brand (no worse than some others though).
 
Still, I think they could have easily released this DAC at a higher price point and still had a good response, just based on the feature set and appearance alone. The fact that they are "only" charging $300 is a good thing in my book.
 
Oct 15, 2010 at 11:08 AM Post #20 of 63


Quote:
project86 said:
Ok, true, I haven't heard them. So I should rephrase..... you COULD have a great system. I've only personally tried the ERC-1 CD player and the old BPA-1 little amp, and I liked them both for the price. Fanboys do tend to get a bit too worked up about this brand (no worse than some others though).
 
Still, I think they could have easily released this DAC at a higher price point and still had a good response, just based on the feature set and appearance alone. The fact that they are "only" charging $300 is a good thing in my book.
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^^ I agree.
 
Also, isn't our head-fi motto "Sorry About Your Wallet"?? I think the funnest part about hi-fi gear is collecting and experiencing the many different items out on the market, especially the brand new items that cause a positive stir in the head-fi communities. That's where the fun and excitement is!
 
Unfortunately, many of us don't have the ability to drive to a store-front that carries most of the items that we show-and-tell on our forums, so in most cases, we buy, then experience it.
 
 
Oct 15, 2010 at 11:56 AM Post #21 of 63


Quote:
mangamonster said:
 
^^ I agree.
 
Also, isn't our head-fi motto "Sorry About Your Wallet"?? I think the funnest part about hi-fi gear is collecting and experiencing the many different items out on the market, especially the brand new items that cause a positive stir in the head-fi communities. That's where the fun and excitement is!
 
Unfortunately, many of us don't have the ability to drive to a store-front that carries most of the items that we show-and-tell on our forums, so in most cases, we buy, then experience it.
 
Click to expand...

 
Good point. Even when you do find a specialty shop that carries some gear, it will usually only be headphones (usually Beyer, Senn, Grado, and maybe AKG), and then gear from a few major manufacturers (maybe a Grado RA1, Musical Fidelity DACs/headphone amps, perhaps some PS Audio stuff). So you still probably won't really find many of the most talked about products in any local store, even if you have a decent audio specialty shop in your area.
 
That's one reason it is important for members hear to help each other out. Some of us write fairly detailed reviews, others just chime in when they can and give their impressions. Either way, as long as we are being honest and unbiased, the result is helpful. I'll be the first to admit that we don't all hear the same. I'm sure some people disagree with my reviews, and I don't always agree with everyone else either. But all we can do is describe our experiences (for better or for worse) in hopes that it will help someone else a little bit. The good part is that mistakes don't usually cost you too much, since the for sale forum here is excellent.

 
 
Oct 17, 2010 at 4:24 PM Post #26 of 63


Quote:
leeperry said:
 

It's out in December....he prolly used a time machine to hear it, hence the lack of informations as this could create a time-space warp
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Actually, I heard it at RMAF in Denver yesterday, no delorean required. 
 
Sounds like most $300 dacs, veiled mids, mushy bass and not nearly as resolving as one who has heard a $800 dac might want.  As I said, nothing to get excited about.
 
 
Oct 18, 2010 at 8:48 AM Post #27 of 63
 
 
No representation is the size, Full Size I like.
 
Quotes of the specification
- D/A conversion: high performance, multibit Sigma-Delta Burr Brown AD1955 
  Data Directed Scrambling with high jitter immunity, and an 8x Oversampling Digital Filter
 
AD1955, Analog Devices is.
http://www.analog.com/en/digital-to-analog-converters/audio-da-converters/ad1955/products/product.html

 
- Remote Control: Milled Aluminum Full Function Remote Control
 
Great & Crazy !
It is welcomed the attachment to Remote Control. However, I was surprised with the milling. 
eek.gif

 
 
Oct 18, 2010 at 4:02 PM Post #30 of 63


Quote:
bixby said:
Actually, I heard it at RMAF in Denver yesterday, no delorean required. 
 
Sounds like most $300 dacs, veiled mids, mushy bass and not nearly as resolving as one who has heard a $800 dac might want.  As I said, nothing to get excited about.
 
Click to expand...


I'm not sure how one can say how a DAC sounds when the final sound you hear is the result of all the preamp, amp, speakers, cabling, and especially the hotel ROOM.  Do you remember what the rest of the gear, cabling, speakers were at RMAF?  
 
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