Hello all,
On the advice of the group, I bought the Emotiva XDA-2 DAC/preamp largely to play my ipod classic and CD player for stereo music, not as a home theater setup.
The Emotiva seems well made, easy to set up, but with a couple of minor issues: I wish it had a volume knob, vs up/down buttons, though the MUTE button can kill the sound to answer phone, etc.
The second issue is that there is no RCA connection as an input; but, after speaking with a great Emotiva customer-service rep, I now recognize that all of the connections are coming from digital sources.....duhhhh. The thing is, I had been using the headphone out from my ipod which split into 2 L/R RCA connections...until now...
Without a dock, or a means of hard-wiring the ipod to the DAC (this may change, and was directed to the Pure I 20 dock
Amazon.com: Pure i-20 30-Pin iPod/iPhone Speaker Dock: Electronics by the Emotiva guy...it has optical/toslink connections), I have employed a Bluetooth receiver that, to expedite this process, I bought at Radio Shack today. It connected well, and has apt-x and NFC processes, and, to my ear, sounds remarkable...though something is telling me I might get better SQ being wired vs unwired.
The great thing about the Bluetooth setup is that the ipod, in hand, serves like a remote control for music selection....songs, artists, playlists etc, and to my astonishment, can be operated from any room in my small, 2-story home without any disconnect!!
Here's the concerns: While the DAC is great, the Emotiva's role as a preamp is limited...no control of bass/treble, and no ability to directly control multiple zones. I eventually want to run up to 6 zones using separate amps. However, the output on the Emotiva has one set of L/R RCA's and/or XLR's...I am using the RCA's for now.
In reading, it seems clear I should use a preamp...perhaps a multi-zone preamp, and have noticed they seem to be either low end, or very high end with names with which I am unfamiliar. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
In the event I am able to find a multizone preamp, and can incorporate an EQ, how would they be connected? ipod>>DAC>>preamp>>eq>>amp>>speakers?
I'm looking at some matching, used, Crown amps...but that has yet to be decided...connecting using the XLR's might be problematic.
My speakers are 70's era Epicures 4: M202's and 2 400's which love juice.
Lastly, would it be possible to forget this complication, and simply find a reasonably priced receiver that is a DAC/preamp/amp/EQ/multizone/Bluetooth all-in-one?
Many thanks!
