XDA desktop solution?

[Jeff]

I'm about 24 months away from upgrading my home theater or building a new 2-channel system; still not sure which I'm going to invest in...
In the meantime, I have an iMac in my family room/study and I want to do better than plain-jane computer speakers. I have some Logitech THX-BBQ-XL supreme 2.1 whatever speakers and the sound is crap. Here's my question:
Could I run my iMac, an HD tuner, and a CD player with digital out to an XDA which would feed two powered monitors like Mackie MR8s or KRK Rokit 8s? I listen to a lot of music at the computer (mostly jazz). The room is pretty small (15*17). And this solution (sans cabling) would run between $800-$1000. I'm unclear on wether the XDA would control the volume like I would want it to.
Thanks for the input!

[CrazyBlue]

Yes it would.

It has a volume control and a remote.

[RPA-1 man]

Nov 6, 2010 22:48:36 GMT -5 CrazyBlue said:

Yes it would.

It has a volume control and a remote.

+1

It would make a great preamp for your sources. If I wasn't such an analog guy and had all digital sources the XDA-1 would absolutely be my choice. I've owned multiple pieces of Emotiva gear over the past three years and have been extremely happy with the sound quality, and build quality, of the gear.

You would be very hard pressed to find a similar solution that was reasonably priced unless you were looking at used DAC's. I'm quite confident you will be very happy with it.

[blessingx]

Jeff, I'm planning something similar except with a pair of Quad 12Ls and a few other 'transports' (so picked up one of these - www.inday.com/da4x/da4x.htm ). As the XDA-1 has a variable output it should perform well for your purpose and similar in functionality to a Lavry DA10/11 or Benchmark DAC-1, but with less wallet emptying. Fingers crossed on SQ.