How about the Emotiva XDA-2?

Yup, how about it?

There always has to be one.

Although I see your train of thought, I was wondering about using the XDA-2 as a preamp. Emotiva touts it as a preamp, but I was wondering if it was a real preamp, or more of just a line attenuator, like in a passive.

I've seen the remarks made at the Emotivalounge, but my guts tells me to take all of that with a grain of salt, or a larger grain of salt than I usually take with opinion.

In any case, my primary focus was on the XDA-2's performance as a digital pre amp.

Maybe I'll just have to take your advise and try it out, although I just bought a new pre amp, so it's importance has taken a bit of a back seat. Still, at $339, if it's an upgrade in sound quality, it's worth a look.

Thanks guys. I kind of suspected what you stated above. As nice as the XDAs are for the money, I really do believe that they need a true pre amp. My XDA-1 doesn't put out nearly enough juice to drive my amp correctly.

I have been giving a tube pre amp some thought for quite a while. Unfortunately, I just don't have the setup (space) to get into tubes right now.

I recently ran across an Aragon 28K MkII pre amp. I really don't know what my fascination is with Aragon gear, but I've always wanted an Aragon pre to go along with my Aragon amp, so I grabbed it. It should be here tomorrow.

My present system has turned into such a budget build that I'm thinking that when I get to move into a listening room, I may just put another system together based on a tube pre amp. I've been wanting to try some Class D amps too and don't want to get rid of my Aragon.

Mik971, I would imagine that your setup would work nicely. According to the guys at Emotiva, keeping the XDA-1's volume at a minimum of 60 should get you very good sound quality.

Mrtennis, what did you compare the XDA-1 to, in your system? I think that the XDA-1 is pretty good. Yes, there could be more body. There could be more detail. There could be more air, but it handles the mids nicely and has a good bottom end. I didn't find that it lacks body at all.

Still, if you feel that the XDA-1 lacks body, you may not like the XDA-2 at all. Based on what I've read, the XDA-2 has a bit more detail and more air, but at the expense of sounding a bit leaner and lacking a bit on the bottom as compared to the XDA-1.