What studio monitors do you have? Some allow an unbalanced connection through the XLR balanced connector, either with their combo XLR/1/4" jack or an adaptor.
As far as the Emotiva XDA-1, I had one of the early ones and its volume control was linear and not logarithmic. The webpage stated .5dB steps and was subsequently editied to say ".5 steps". With my setup, a 26dB gain amplifier and 89dB speakers, I found the first step, .5 was too loud for the quietest setting I wanted, and that I only had 4 coarse steps available before it was too loud.
My understanding was that once the problem was acknowledged by Emotiva, you could request the unit to be programmed with a logarithmic volume control prior to shipping. The webpage and manual still say ".5 steps", so I'm assuming they are still shipped in linear mode unless logarithmic is specifically requested, but you would have to verify that with Emotiva.
Edit: According to Emotiva, the units are being shipped with the volume control in logarithmic format. They have not modified the product webpage to reflect that.
I though it sounded decent, but the extra value I thought it had was not in superior sound, but in having remote control inputs and volume. Even if mine had been shipped with a proper logarithmic volume control, I'm not sure that I could have lived with the many bright blue lights and display, even at the dimmest setting. The manual stated the dimmer would cycle through an all lights off setting, but that wasn't implemented. (Maybe it has been now?). OTOH some people like gaudy light shows.
Steve
