Emotiva Audio XDA-2 USB DAC, Digital Preamp & Headphone AMP

I bought this as an upgrade to my old Fiio E7 DAC/Amp and it was a huge improvement. The old DAC worked well enough and provided an increase in sound quality over my on board audio that I was happy with until I heard some more advanced and expensive systems.Sound: First impressions, Wow! The sound quality of this is very high since it uses an Analog Devices AD1955 DAC. The same DAC is found in much higher priced systems such as CD players and other DACs. I would say this DAC is very transparent sounding and well balanced. It shines with acoustic music and classical music. With it you will notice small details and nuances in songs you've heard hundreds of times before. It also tightens up the bass repose by a lot compared to my Fiio. I though the Fiio sounded pretty good before I had this but now I can't stand to listen to it because of how closed off it sounds and how muddy the bass response is on it compared to the XDA-2.Build Quality: What can I say.. It's built like a tank. All metal construction, metal buttons, a solid milled aluminum remote. Seriously, if someone were to break into your house you could beat them down with the remote then turn around continue listening to your favorite tracks. I can't see either piece breaking in the near future, or the far future for that matter.Options: It has a lot of options for inputs and outputs on it, including balanced AES/EBU professional input and balanced XLR outputs. If you need a preamp/DAC for a system that has a lot of different inputs you can't really go wrong with this one. Also it having a remote makes it very nice for switching between inputs while still sitting on the couch with your favorite drink.Misc: One thing I don't like about it is that it does not come with any connectors, none at all, just a power cable. I am using it at my computer with my V-Moda Crossfade Headphones and running USB from my computer to the DAC. At first I used a random old USB cable I found with it but it had some buzz and hiss whenever it was on so I upgraded to an Audioquest Cinnamon USB cable. Now before you get all preachy and yell at me saying cables make no difference let me tell you, It got rid of the hiss completely and will last me a lifetime because of its incredible build quality.

Size is big, Sound is good, and Remote Controller is best.I can recommend it if you have mount rack.

I was foolishly surprised at the size of this thing. I just assumed that it would be a reasonable size, certainly no bigger than my Teac 501 or Mytek Stereo DSD, both of which also have balanced outputs and also play DSD. I was floored when the box arrived. At 19" wide and 22" deep, it won't fit on any of my media shelves or equipment racks. Still, had it performed well, I probably would have kept it. I wasn't expecting sound on the same level as my Teac or Mytek, but I did think that it should be on a par with my $200 ifi-Nano which also plays DSD and is only the size of a pack of cigarettes. Boy was I wrong. Regardless of resolution, the XDA-2 obscures detail rendering music lifeless. Instruments are blurred together, and voices are hard to distinguish. In addition, it certainly doesn't meet its SNR specs in either the preamp or head phone amp mode. I couldn't believe that I heard noise through my Sennheiser 600s, even at very modest volume levels. That's a first for me with any DAC I've tried. Then I cranked up the volume driving my new Parasound A23 amp in balanced mode with quality interconnects and guess what? More noise. Believe me, when I run the Teac, Mytek, or ifi DACs through the Parasound at full volume there's total silence. The final clincher was the issue with the Windows 10 driver. My anti-virus software wouldn't let me download it, so I had to disable my virus protection in order to get the driver form Emotiva. This driver would not recognize the XDA-2 on all of my Windows 10 computers, although I was able to find a C Media driver that would. Still, there is a serious issue with either the C Media- or Emotiva-supplied driver in Windows 10 - when the XDA-2 is turned off and on or disconnected while the computer is running, you have to reboot the computer in order to use the XDA-2 at any resolution other that 16-bit 44 or 48k!!! For me, this is a major inconvenience. After two frustrating days of trying to get the software issue resolved, I packed it up and got a return authorization from Amazon. Thank you again Amazon for your amazing customer support.

When I get this to work the way its suppose too it works wonderful. If the xda2 isn't turned on before the desktop the audio defaults to 44khz and is unable to go higher. If at any point I use standby and come back from standby the audio will not show up under device manager. I have to manually install the driver or restart. Here is the best part, when I do install it the volume defaults to 100 which will cause anyone's ears to ring and i'm surprised I haven't blown my speakers. I've let windows install their default drivers for it, I've tried installing windows 8 drivers, windows 7 and windows xp drivers and they all have the same issue.Also the "Power button" on the remote puts it in standby. Kind or renders the standby button next to it asinine.Contacting XDA-2 I get a response that I can paraphrase as "Your stuff is junk and that's why." Despite me using a $1500 desktop, 3 foot gold plated usb cable, XLR to XLR cables and a pair of rokit 8s.