A few days with Emotiva DC-1

[shibashis]

Emotiva asks you to 'rethink high-end' with their products, and some in the forum have had very positive things to say about Emotiva gear.

After acquiring a used Adcom GFA 545 II power amp I was desperately looking for a proper pre to go with it. I was inclined toward an idea of a dac-pre, most of my music is in digital format, all my CDs are ripped as well, so a dac-pre made sense, add to the fact that I did not have budget for a dedicated pre and a dac.

The Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus was available locally but decided against it after some reading, the volume control on it was an issue it seemed.
The usual reading and research and restless anticipation ensued, after quite a while I narrowed my choices to,

1) iFi iDac
2) Parasound ZDac V2
3) Emotiva Stealth DC-1

After much deliberation (and I mean much, plenty of midnight cups of coffee worth) I was leaning toward the Emotiva. One point which swayed my decision somewhat was that I really wanted a remote and the others did not offer one. At the same time since no audition was possible for either of the three choices it did not really matter which one I chose, in the end any one of the three would have to be a blind buy.
Pretty much everything available online said positive things about the Emotiva, and then reading about the company itself affirmed my choice even more. It is not available in India and had to be imported. I am always apprehensive about importing anything, after consulting with fellow forum members Koushik and srisaikat I decided to go with Borderlinx. The whole idea of going with Borderlinx as opposed to getting it shipped from Emotiva direct was to avoid the hassles of customs clearing and so on, that however did not come true. I faced the much-dreaded customs issues and finally received the Emotiva on 12th August.

Bought for : $449
Total cost including customs and shipping: approx 42K

This is now my most expensive audio equipment (along with the Usher V601 speakers which were almost the same) and will stay that way for some time to come, this much is certain.
This is what the package looked like.

 

[shibashis]

The build quality is superb, it looks and feels like an expensive and well crafted unit.
Time and again I have read in forums people testifying to the Emotiva's build quality and now I know perfectly why.
Came with a metallic remote, that is quite heavy, it will give you the unmistakable feeling of you being in control when you hold the remote, I am quite certain that is what they went for designing an almost unique looking remote.

Before I jot down my expressions of how it sounds, I will confess that I am not an audiophile and I have not experienced a high-end DAC before. So far I was using a Fiio E07K dac which served me very well for one and half year, I have heard the Audioquest Dragonfly version 2, but that is about it. My impressions are my own and I can only say what I am finding with my system.

I will keep it short.
The improvements were subtle to begin with, but were plentiful right from the moment the DC-1 was active in the chain. Initially it was a little harsh, a bit forwarded minded. Now however after about 15 hours or so it has mellowed down, it sounds more musical, pleasant. I have read a few people say that it lacked a bit of dynamism compared to some other very expensive DACs (NAD M51 came in comparison a few times), it seemed to me that way as well but I think I just needed a little time to tune in to the new-found coherence in the music. I do not feel any lack of dynamism now.

Music has a lot more air. If anything it has somehow added a 'tangible' quality to the performances. Any vocal, be it male or bold female, sounds more natural, there is more 'texture' to it, you can give more of a live image to the singer now. It is easy to tell that she is on that stage and she is about 10 feet deep while the guitar is coming from the left and is about few feet forward. Soundstage is very apparent, adds another dimension to the music. It is not that with Fiio it was not present, but it is different now. The Fiio felt like you are on the journey, trekking up the trail, and Emotiva feels like I have reached the base camp and can now revere the peak with my own eyes, right in front of me. I use a trekking analogy because I can identify with that.

Bass is tighter, it is more articulate, there is more definition. With the Fiio it went deeper, not as deep now but I feel that can be improved upon with the addition of proper stands and positioning.
The biggest improvement is that each instrument has its own identity, nothing is lost.
Everything feels 'in place'. 'Precision' is another word that jumps to mind to describe the music, the attack and then the decay, it all feels so very natural. Nothing is forced on you.
The guitar stays in the background and then at a certain moment it will appear at the front as it was meant to be, a lot of such experiences were lost to me previously.

One could say I am going overboard with praises, I very well could be and I have also been warned to reserve my judgement during the initial days and come back to review after about a couple of weeks. That I will but for the moment I am very happy with the purchase.

The discovery will continue.

 

[sound_cycle]

Music has a lot more air.<snip> Soundstage is very apparent, adds another dimension to the music. <snip>like I have reached the base camp and can now revere the peak with my own eyes, right in front of me. I use a trekking analogy because I can identify with that<snip>not as deep now but I feel that can be improved upon with the addition of proper stands and positioning.<snip>That I will but for the moment I am very happy with the purchase.

Congrats once again on the new DAC.

I love that trekking analogy

Now, whether it is ear/brain getting adjusted to the sound or something happening at the electron quantum state is of no importance to me, but I am convinced there was a change for the better over about 30 - 40 hrs with the bifrost, maybe you will experience something similar.

I found that my older positioning was not the best after the change in DAC. Again bereft of logic (how did the room characteristics change because I had one small shiny dabba in it ?). But the sound stage this new shiny dabba threw seemed to benefit from moving them slightly closer and reducing the toe in I had. So I suggest sticky tape mark the current position and retry maybe

I can sense you begin to smile and think that's a severe case of "Audiophilia nervosa" etc, but I will swear on a stack of my most treasured CDs that I believe hat i said above is the truth and nothing but the truth.

ciao
gr

 

[shibashis]

Thank you Sound_cycle.
I am quite confident that the Emotiva will continue to improve somewhat with time as you have found with your Bifrost.

Well that little box did not change the characteristics of the room but it did change the characteristics of the sound emitting from your speakers, and so adjustments could be needed. I have found the very same, I can distinctly feel that the speakers need a bit more 'air' around them to shine more now. Unfortunately tweaking with positioning is not going to be possible in the present....but soon...soon.

 

[Fantastic]

Sometime mid August I looked for users of the Emotiva-DC1 on this forum. I couldn't find anything. I searched the Net and found some reviews where many liked it and a few did not like it much. However a few compared it with DAC's that I have heard and so I guessed it might be good enough for me. I bought it from Amazon with 3 day delivery. That cost much more, but I was fed up with waiting endlessly for packages to get delivered and I had to stay home to collect it. So I bought mine about a week ago and it's already been delivered !

I have the OPPO93 and the Yamaha A 1040 (new) Bluray players also. DAC's in both are good . OPPO is more dynamic and the Yamaha is smoother and deeper and getting better with time.
The DC-1 is far better than these ! Much deeper, tighter bass, great transients and very nice vocals and HF. instruments are well separated and you can hear deep into the mix . Even faint sounds being very audible with louder instruments playing at the same time. After you hear it on the DC-1 you know it's there and then you hear it on the other DAC's but they don't stand out so clearly.
I'm glad I bought it , I was hesitating for a while but something triggered it. Maybe that the Rupee was sliding and that it might cost very much more later on.
It was $499 on Amazon and the total cost with expedited shipping and duty was 46.6 K. Prepaid duty was very low ! Cost including freight was about 39K.
So duty was just 19.5% . Only hitch was DHL called and asked for a KYC. But it was easy ( they explained what had to be done!). Just logging on to their web site and uploading address, email ID, ph numbers and personal ID. The front of a driving license was all that was required. Now apparently that KYC is valid for anything else that DHL brings in for me from overseas !

Is the Emotiva as good as the multi K$ DAC's ? My friend has a Bryston DAC and I've heard several others at different locations. They all had far superior speakers . Keeping that in mind, I think the Emotiva compares very well. If not equal it does come very close. You can say that only with a A/B comparison. I think it's great value for money. It does get better as you keep using it. VERY nice !
I will be doing an A/B comparison as soon as possible with other expensive DAC's. Not really required, as I like it as it is ! Still....I'm curious ...!
I certainly like it better than the Benchmark DAC-1 which I was listening to for almost 2 weeks continuously , just a short while ago.

It does use LM 4562 opamps ! What if we changed the opamp........

 

[shibashis]

Wow...it started to feel a little lonely in the Emotiva DC-1 club, glad that you could join.

I do not have experience with high-end DACs but I like what I hear and that matters the most I guess. Agree 100% about subtle and faint sounds that Emo brings to the fore so nicely, without it in the chain they get lost. I have heard so much more in the very well known and loved racks since the Emo has joined the chain. Music has a new refinement which was not apparent to me before.

Give it a bit more time, it is going to sound even better!

Very very interested to know how it fares against DACs that cost at least twice its price.

 

[Fantastic]

The Benchmark DAC 1 is $1200. The Bryston DAC2 is $2400/-.

 

[Amitkg]

Benchmark DAC 1 has remote. Heard it at fellow FM 'Pratimbayal's place. It sounds good.

 

[myriad]

Benchmark DAC 1 has remote. Heard it at fellow FM 'Pratimbayal's place. It sounds good.

Pratim has Dac 2L

Regards

 

[Amitkg]

Pratim has Dac 2L

Regards

Stand corrected.
Thank you Vasu. [emoji4]

 

[Fantastic]

Was out of town for a few days and got to hear some other DAC's and systems.

This morning I pulled out an old John Denver CD and was listening to it and it sounds VERY nice. Especially the guitar and voice. I realised it was the Yamaha A1040 bluray player that was being used. After a while I switched to the Emotiva DC-1 and the music lost 'something' ! Voice was not as smooth and the guitar certainly lost some life. There isn't any HF loss but some 'life' from the music was lost. Both have not run in for long. But the Yamaha which was 'just' nice earlier seems to have improved relatively rapidly , rather dramatically !
Maybe it's too early to make a judgement. However I WAS quite surprised !

Maybe another 50 hours or so !
Now I'm going back to the music. Sounds really nice !

 

[nmursekar]

Are the DACs needed to be opened up after certain hours like amps ?

 

[Fantastic]

What do you mean 'opened up' ?

Are you suggesting that amps need to be physically opened up after several hours ? There is no such thing.
You might be getting confused with the term 'running in ' or 'burn in' ! In simple terms it's supposed to cause the electronic parts to reach a proper (optimal ?) operational status after it is powered up for many hours ......whatever that is 'supposed ' to mean. True or not depends on the listener ! This subject is always highly debated. Current measurement specs wise you will not see any change !

Whether actual changes take place or the ear gets used to 'that' sound is to be investigated.

 

[nmursekar]

Yes. Rightly said.
This is the debatable subject and it always ends with the word "relative".

 

[Fantastic]

Very often it ends with :cheers:

 

[ShutterX]

Slightly noob question. Whats the purpose of a volume knob on that? Isnt volume best controlled from Amp? Many Dacs dont have volume controls.

 

[nmursekar]

The DACs which has volume control, they also can be used as preamplifier. You can connect them directly to power amp.
Eg. CA dacmagic plus, Emotiva stealth dc 1, sonodyne DAC p1 etc.

These are good if you dont want to invest in a dedicated expensive preamplifier.

 

[shibashis]

The Emotiva's volume control is analogue and not digital unlike the CA dacmagic plus. So far I have found that the DC-1 is doing a quite good job as a pre, have not felt the need for a dedicated preamp much. Maybe using the right one in the chain could improve the sound but I am quite happy with DC-1.
It has given me a world of improvement, I am very keen to test it against other DACs in the range or higher.
Mostly I have found a very transparent quality in music, rhythmic, precise but absolutely humble, music sounds smooth and almost languid at times!