Well my XDA-1 has been playing almost 3 hours

I unboxed it a bit before 6:00 this evening. I had already prepared for the install so most of the cabling was in place and ready to plug in. It took about 10 minutes from box to making music.

For reference the audition system is as follows:

Preamp = Emotiva USP-1
Power Amp = Emotiva UPA-5
DAC = Emotiva XDA-1
CDP/transport = Sony SCD-C222ES
BDP/digital streamer = Sony BDP-S570
HTPC = DIY generic PC running Windows Media Center 2005
Sub-woofer = DIY Infinite Baffle w/2 EA IB15-8 drivers
Sub-woofer amp = Behringer EP2500
Main Speakers = Klipsch La Scalas (heavily modified)

NOTE: Only the equipment germane to my initial testing is listed. There is a good bit more to the system but the HT stuff had no role to play tonight.

Music selected:
Styx – Greatest Hits
The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler Private Investigations (HDCD)
Nora Jones – Come Away With Me (SACD)
Eric Clapton – Slow Hand (SACD)
The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.
Assorted MP3s (320Kb VBR)
Pandora Radio

Impressions: A good bit smoother and more natural sounding on CDs. LOTS of detail that was either completely missing or covered up when played by the CDP alone. A bit less pronounced bass on some songs. I suspect that this is more a matter of enhanced midrange and upper registers rather than a decrease in bass.

Biggest surprise: Just how good a well recorded MP3 can sound when run through a decent DAC. I played Walter Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack from the HTPC and was amazed at how good it sounded.

Here's an overview of what I'm forced to sit in front of every evening.



Tomorrow evening or maybe Saturday I'm going to move the XDA-1 out to the “vintage” system (Integra preamp & amp – Magnepan SMGa – Sony ES CDP) and give it an extended listen.

I really hope that Emotiva contracted to build a metric a$$load of these.