I bought three more of these Emotiva DACs after I found that my first one measured far better than all my dual differential 1704 based DACs. As I recall, it measured 0.0003% distortion, which is identical or better than my Juli@ measurement card itself in loopback, so the Emotiva might even be better than that. I needed 4 identical DACs with AES inputs and Balanced outputs and level control, so these inexpensive Emotiva DACs fit the ticket at a reasonable price. They have always sounded sweet and pure to me.
I was shocked to see bad things written about this DAC after that.
But now I go back to the original ASR review, and in fact it's pretty actually pretty good, beats the highly touted original Topping DX7 in THD but not linearity. It would get a 2dB better SINAD score than the DX7. It has other unimportant issues, like an -104dB idle tone at 17kHz with USB input playing J-Test. Amir rightfully dismisses this as audibly unimportant, though not a good sign.
Elsewhere, and possibly at ASR, I read something worrisome about a grounding issue and running rather hot. I had to cancel a ground loop by plugging the Emotiva into the same circuit as my Amplifier...suggesting it IS grounded, but may lack isolation through the AES input which a professional unit should have.
Because of heat, I avoid stacking them, and in the one case I do, I use 3 rubber feet to separate them.
There are complains of failures at ASR, but I have had my original unit over 5 years, and no problems.
I continue to think about upgrading to the latest Topping, a D90 would be unequivocally better (unlike the DX7) but it hardly seems worth it for likely inaudible improvements, and I have more important things to think about.
I was shocked to see bad things written about this DAC after that.
But now I go back to the original ASR review, and in fact it's pretty actually pretty good, beats the highly touted original Topping DX7 in THD but not linearity. It would get a 2dB better SINAD score than the DX7. It has other unimportant issues, like an -104dB idle tone at 17kHz with USB input playing J-Test. Amir rightfully dismisses this as audibly unimportant, though not a good sign.
Elsewhere, and possibly at ASR, I read something worrisome about a grounding issue and running rather hot. I had to cancel a ground loop by plugging the Emotiva into the same circuit as my Amplifier...suggesting it IS grounded, but may lack isolation through the AES input which a professional unit should have.
Because of heat, I avoid stacking them, and in the one case I do, I use 3 rubber feet to separate them.
There are complains of failures at ASR, but I have had my original unit over 5 years, and no problems.
I continue to think about upgrading to the latest Topping, a D90 would be unequivocally better (unlike the DX7) but it hardly seems worth it for likely inaudible improvements, and I have more important things to think about.
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