OK, I managed to get some quiet time to quickly get a first impression of the XDA-1
Comparison: Marantz CD5400 (Transport and DAC) vs Marantz transport with Emotiva XDA-1 DAC
Gear:
Marantz CD5400
Rotel RC-1070
Emotiva XDA-1
Emotiva UPA-2
Boston CR-65
Environment: Study
I used the toslink optical connection from the cd player to test the XDA vs the analogue outputs of the cd player.
The CD's I used was:
Jonny Lang - Lie to Me
Breaking Benjamin - Phobia
Dave Matthews Band - Under The Table and Dreaming
(These were just the first CD's I quickly grabbed, not specifically selected)
Basically my experience was the same irrespective of the type of music. I started with DMB and the first thing that struck me was the increased soundstage. The separation of the instruments were also much clearer. Moving on to Jonny Lang and Breaking Benjamin just yielded the same experience. The depth I heard was tremendous.
It comes down to a single point of audio being expanded in all directions with better clarity. This is def. the best DAC (all previous internal) that I owned.
I will give it a week or so and then test it in the living room with the Boston VR3's and a proper selection of tracks
Comparison: Marantz CD5400 (Transport and DAC) vs Marantz transport with Emotiva XDA-1 DAC
Gear:
Marantz CD5400
Rotel RC-1070
Emotiva XDA-1
Emotiva UPA-2
Boston CR-65
Environment: Study
I used the toslink optical connection from the cd player to test the XDA vs the analogue outputs of the cd player.
The CD's I used was:
Jonny Lang - Lie to Me
Breaking Benjamin - Phobia
Dave Matthews Band - Under The Table and Dreaming
(These were just the first CD's I quickly grabbed, not specifically selected)
Basically my experience was the same irrespective of the type of music. I started with DMB and the first thing that struck me was the increased soundstage. The separation of the instruments were also much clearer. Moving on to Jonny Lang and Breaking Benjamin just yielded the same experience. The depth I heard was tremendous.
It comes down to a single point of audio being expanded in all directions with better clarity. This is def. the best DAC (all previous internal) that I owned.
I will give it a week or so and then test it in the living room with the Boston VR3's and a proper selection of tracks
