[Rclark]

First of all just want to comment on the durability and "mild mannered demeanor" in that they've beenaround, these are the tour amps, and run every day by myself, never shut off. Never any problems or wierd ooccurrence s of any kind, just steady, trouble free power of a consistent, uber high quality.

Anyway, just ordered an XDA 2. Wasn't going to buy a Dac for a while as I'm waiting a bit longer for a Dual Core, maybe a Dual Core 3.. but ps4 is coming out and that's my source. Wanted a decent dac for it.

I'm going to box up my optocoupler and use the xda-2 as dac/pre fully balanced straight to Ncores. Erc 2 sounded exceptional via Ncores so xda should be much the same. Ps4 via optical to xda 2 balanced to Ncores and Music Unlimited as player. That's my system in about 30 days.

[jtwrace]

Where have you been?

[Rclark]

Watching MS go down in flames. One of the most interesting "tech battles" to watch, imo, these new consoles. Have seen some epic threads, lol.

I'm back in it though, new room, new challenges. Still want to take system further. Still in love with the amps as well.

[jtwrace]

Glad to hear the NCores are treating you well.  Let us know how the new dac goes!

[Rclark]

Thanks Jason  . I will vouch for anything you put up for sale as diy. You're a craftsman, my Ncores look factory built.

[jtwrace]

Thanks Jason  . I will vouch for anything you put up for sale as diy. You're a craftsman for sure, my Ncores look factory built.

They are factory built...the jtwrace factory.   

[Rclark]

Yup  for sure.

[jtwrace]

Did you try it?

[Rclark]

Headphones arrived, the dac and cables will be here Tuesday night,  power cables should arrive next week.

Edit, and just bought Big Red Machine's CMX 2. The dac and PS4 will go onto that.

[Rclark]

So about these balanced cables.

Honestly there's no way to quantify it. I went from ps3 raw output via analogue out on silver rca cables to an optocoupler on batteries, to the ps3 on a nice optical cable to an external dac and balanced cables to my amps.

There are definite resolution increases, but no way to know the major contributer, way too many major changes at once. Thread fail.

It works though, these are just beautiful amps. I am a Hypex fanboy for life as long as Bruno Putzeys is still there. Man makes a fine, sturdy amp.

I will say this, balanced xlr's provide one HELL of a snug connection versus rca "slip ons".

And I'm sure the balanced circuitry in my dac/pre and ncores are communicating better.

[greenkiwi]

I'm surprised you went with the XDA-2 instead of the DC-1?  Either way, I've enjoyed both the amps.  I really like the DC-1 matched with my nc400s.

My thoughts on it are that the connections are more secure and the nc400 is designed for a balanced input, so you might as well use it and remove whatever noise it might remove.

[Rclark]

Perfectly logical reason for not going dc1. I want to get a Dspeaker Dual Core but I'm kind of biding my time hoping for a hardware refresh.

I needed a dac for my upcoming PS4. Otherwise, I totally would have bought a DC1. It's only $499 right now!

Emotiva has awesome resale value. I have no doubt when its time to step to Dual Core my xda 2 will fetch top dollar.

[persisting1]

Perfectly logical reason for not going dc1. I want to get a Dspeaker Dual Core but I'm kind of biding my time hoping for a hardware refresh.

I needed a dac for my upcoming PS4. Otherwise, I totally would have bought a DC1. It's only $499 right now!

Emotiva has awesome resale value. I have no doubt when its time to step to Dual Core my xda 2 will fetch top dollar.

Rclark, empty your inbox. Trying to send a PM.

[Rclark]

 Got room 

Btw. I have noticed a trend in my sound as the weeks have gone on. My long term memory, burned in from a year with the same configuration is telling me this new setup is more neutral top to bottom, even more true to source than before, at the sacrifice of a little sweetness. There was definitely a sweet coloration before with the LDR and all rca's on everything but I feel I've made gains in dynamics.

In gosh, 9 days I will be making yet another change, ps3 to ps4, and am expecting large improvement as many years have passed since ps3 launched and ps4 will have ever more refined audio electronics inside.