My earlier intended question has been resolved. 
I was asking a question about driving a subwoofer from the Emotiva XDA-3 DAC. 
I was trying to run the sub with a single RCA cable. 
I was previously driving the sub from an earlier device with single LFE RCA. 
I have been able to resolve this error by using two RCA cables, right and left channels. This apparently turns something on that is needed between the Emotiva XDA-3 and the subwoofer.