[matt_garman]

I have an Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC.  This is just a bit above C&C guidelines in terms of cost, but used it easily makes the cut (and that's how I bought mine).  Hopefully that's OK.

I'm curious if anyone is interested in a listening tour of this DAC?  I have an ulterior motive here: when I first got this, I thought it was fantastic.  But over time, I found myself constantly turning the volume down when using it.  I realized what was going on: listening fatigue.  Details here.

I sent it back to Emotiva for warranty service.  I don't know if they actually listened to it, but they ran it through their test system, and said it's fine, so sent it back unchanged.

Is it my ears or bad synergy with the rest of my system?  I tend think it's not the latter, as I've tried many other DACs (including an older Emotiva), and never had this issue.  I guess you could argue my ears are part of the system, but they are the one part I can't change. 

My web searching suggests I'm the only one who ever had this problem.  And until I realized the fatigue, I thought it was a great DAC.  So I'm putting this feeler out there to see if anyone else wants to give it a listen and see what they think.

If you are interested, PM me.  You must be willing to give it an honest listen, and treat it gingerly.  I can't keep it, so will need to sell it, which means it needs to be kept in pristine condition (it still smells new at this point).  You must also be willing to do the test and pass it on in a reasonable amount of time---say no more than 10 days per stop.  I'll also expect feedback on your impressions and the rest of your system.

[electricbear]

For $499 new it is a good dac/ preamp. I've listened to one extensively here at the store and its presentation can be a little forward. If you have a system that leans towards the bright side I could certainly see why you were getting fatigued. I still don't know of a better sounding dac at the price though. You could try using it with better cabling, using a good usb cable does make a difference.

[JLM]

I've owned a DC-1 for 4 months and use it in my simple system: MacBook Air to DC-1 to Channel Island Audio D-100 mono-blocks to Brines Acoustics M18-F200 (floor-standing transmission line using "the mighty" Fostex F200A driver) in a treated 8ft x 13ft x 21ft room with near-field setup.  Note that the F200A is not your typical extended range driver (F3 = 30 Hz, uses an AlNiCo magnet, 90 dB/w/m at 8 ohms, 8 inch diameter but no whizzer cone, and provides a full bodied sound). The DC-1 is by far the cheapest component in the mix.  I'd been shopping for higher end DAC/pre pieces but finally decided not to chase higher resolutions/prices in this quickly changing technology.

I would describe it's sound as professional (somewhat dry & highly analytical combining to be highly revealing) which is just what studio staff and you Matt are complaining about, but synergies well with my F200A drivers.  I have been playing with speaker location to improve/enlarge soundstage (controlled directivity theory) and have the best/deepest soundstage ever.  A friend recently brought over his Beresford DAC with linear power supply (even more modestly priced) during our audio club meeting and some thought it sounded noticeably better (not proud papa me, but I'm a "speaker guy" of sorts and so am not entuned to many DAC attributes - thus the relatively low cost).

But good idea to give others a chance to listen.   

[macrojack]

Matt - I'd be interested in trying your Stealth since I've been following JLM's adventure and thinking of buying one myself. In fact, if you plan to sell yours, I might be your buyer. I would use it with my Ncore 400 monos through a large pair of professional wooden horns with 2 inch compression drivers. The second system is video and would simply include a pair of semi pro active monitors by KRK. = the Rocket 8's. My zip code is 81521.

[Early B.]

My best friend has one in his setup which includes a pair of Emotiva Airmotiv speakers. The DAC section is marginal, but the preamp is pretty impressive. The Stealth DC-1 is worth the price for the preamp alone.

[matt_garman]

Thanks for the feedback and interest, everyone.  Just to add a little more color to my perspective: the comments I've seen here are consistent with what I've seen in a lot of places: generally favorable, and no reports of fatigue.  I seem to be unique in the fatigue department.  Emotiva says my unit tests clean, but (at the risk of opening the "subjective versus measurements" can of worms) I wonder if there's an aberration somewhere that is beyond the measurements?  But it very well could be my ears, and that's what I hope to accomplish with the listening tour.  If a few people listen to it and say they don't hear fatigue, well, it must be me.

...or it could be my system synergy (or lack thereof).  However, I tried in a couple fairly different configs:

(1) Nearfield with Mark Audio Alpair 7.3 fullrange drivers
(2) Farfield with Salk Songtowers (this is where I used the older Emotiva XDA-1 by the way)

In both cases I tried so many amps I lost track.  I'm pretty sure I tried both optical and USB inputs for the Emotiva.

The other curious thing was this: if I used software to upsample the music to 176.4khz (basically 4x from 44.1khz), then fed that do the DC-1, the fatigue effect went away (well, actually, later listening suggested it didn't go away completely, but greatly diminished it).  That to me suggests there's something about the filtering that doesn't work for me.

Anyway, thanks again everyone!