the DCC2SE has TWO ANALOG INPUTS- one rca and the other xlr.
i bought a pair of cardas xlr-male to rca female ($65) so i could use both. the preamp is crystal clear but it lacks the last bit of musicality- my terms in this case would be "body" or "palpability", arguably stupid descriptions for something i can't quite describe. but something is bleached out of the mix, and i don't use tubes. a rowland consummate preamp (an ancient piece of junk, right?- not!) provided a more pleasing sound- although slightly less detailed, and a touch more grain.
i am biased towards the rowland sound though. i haven't heard the hovland, but i think from the reviews on it, that it is ultimately way-noisier than the DCC2-SE, unlike the newer tube-designs that have a much-improved noise-floor.
EMM should make a stand-alone 2-channel dac just like they finally came out with a stand-alone cd player. but you could always spring for a dac-6e (the non-se would be pretty good also, and inexpensive these days), and just use the 1st two outputs.
i bought a pair of cardas xlr-male to rca female ($65) so i could use both. the preamp is crystal clear but it lacks the last bit of musicality- my terms in this case would be "body" or "palpability", arguably stupid descriptions for something i can't quite describe. but something is bleached out of the mix, and i don't use tubes. a rowland consummate preamp (an ancient piece of junk, right?- not!) provided a more pleasing sound- although slightly less detailed, and a touch more grain.
i am biased towards the rowland sound though. i haven't heard the hovland, but i think from the reviews on it, that it is ultimately way-noisier than the DCC2-SE, unlike the newer tube-designs that have a much-improved noise-floor.
EMM should make a stand-alone 2-channel dac just like they finally came out with a stand-alone cd player. but you could always spring for a dac-6e (the non-se would be pretty good also, and inexpensive these days), and just use the 1st two outputs.