Behind the Build: DR Design Series Streamer, DAC, Preamplifier and Amplifier

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Well, hello everybody. Big Dan and Lonnie Von here at the uh Emotiva photo studio. Mhm. And we're going to talk about the new differential reference design series. Lonnie, can you give them the Vanna White?

[00:00:10]>> I'll do the Vanna White.

[00:00:11]>> Beautifully done, Lonnie. He has great, lovely hands.

[00:00:14]>> [laughter] >> You take good care of your hands. I like to see that.

[00:00:16]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:00:17]>> Yeah.

[00:00:18]>> You like that? It's called the barbell grip.

[00:00:19]>> Yeah. Lonnie's sandpaper. Things them up good.

[00:00:22]>> Sandpaper does well.

[00:00:23]>> We uh we had a lot of people asking us for a compact system over the years, but uh you There's a lot of small gear out that's really not very high performance.

[00:00:33]And uh one of the things I wanted to do was if we're going to do something uh different and kind of compact, I wanted to have the kind of performance we're noted for.

[00:00:42]>> Yeah.

[00:00:42]>> So, after at long last, we have the differential reference design series.

[00:00:47]What makes these very special is they're fully balanced from end to out, just like our big products, the big DR products.

[00:00:53]>> Yep.

[00:00:53]>> And um we spent quite a bit of time getting them right, but the the proof is in the pudding. They're really great.

[00:00:59]And right now the line consists of these four models. We've got the DRS streamer, >> Yep.

[00:01:04]>> the DRD DAC, >> Yep.

[00:01:06]>> the DRP preamp, and the DRA power amps.

[00:01:10]>> We have such innovative >> I know.

[00:01:12]>> design uh nomenclature, [laughter] you know, you'd never guess what they are.

[00:01:16]Uh and what we're going to do right now is we'll get into the woods uh uh deep down into the a deep dive into the woods on each model now. So, let's let's start with the streamer, Lonnie.

[00:01:25]>> Let's do that.

[00:01:27]>> [music] >> This is a sweet little streamer. Uh this is built on the Volumio platform, which is a very popular streaming uh engine, and uh it started out as a hobbyist platform, but it's evolved and matured quite a ways. It does the Spotify Connect, Qobuz, Tidal Connect, Roon endpoint. It It all the popular streaming services. It's got it all.

[00:01:50]>> Yep.

[00:01:51]>> And uh it's a great sounding unit. It's fully balanced on the output uh side, as you can see here, the little balanced XLRs.

[00:01:58]>> Mhm.

[00:01:59]>> You've got your line outs for balanced, single-ended, optical, and uh coax, as well as a network connection.

[00:02:06]>> Yep.

[00:02:07]>> USB connectivity.

[00:02:09]>> Which can read a NAS drive, things like that.

[00:02:12]>> Yeah, so it can go on a home network.

[00:02:13]You can And it'll manage very large file volumes.

[00:02:16]>> Very large files.

[00:02:17]>> I think what did Keith say he was managing over 10,000 titles?

[00:02:20]>> And it He didn't know what the limit was.

[00:02:22]>> Yeah, it's it's massive. What's really cool in this thing >> It's got a HDMI output.

[00:02:26]>> Absolutely.

[00:02:27]>> So, you can stream your music. You can have the uh the output, the HDMI output, put it into your monitor or your television, whatever you got for your video side, and it will give you all of the metadata, album art, and it goes out on the uh on the internet with an AI engine, and it pulls all of the uh related information, and it's dynamic.

[00:02:45]It's It's evolving constantly. It'll give you album lyrics. It'll give you a liner notes. It'll give you all the background on on people that recorded on the album, all sorts of details, and it's constantly evolving. And uh so that that connectivity is nice, and you uh you get quite a bit of information from it. And then you got your trigger ins and outs, and of course your your massive two-wire power connector, figured. Let's get into the uh And then we'll wheeze a little bit in the higher make this thing work. I'm going to turn it back around so it's beautiful again.

[00:03:12]Let's talk about the engine that drives this thing, which is the the Raspberry Pi >> CM4 module.

[00:03:18]>> Yeah, the CM4.

[00:03:19]>> The CM4 compute module is was the ideal setup for this because we can update it on the fly. We can um do anything we want to do with it.

[00:03:28]And this was actually a collaborative project with Volumio.

[00:03:32]So, we worked with them directly, which I have to say, you know, Michelangelo, who runs the company, and all everybody there are just fabulous to work with, okay?

[00:03:41]>> Italiano.

[00:03:41]>> Yes, they are.

[00:03:42]>> Yeah.

[00:03:43]>> Smart guys.

[00:03:44]>> Very smart group.

[00:03:45]>> Very smart. And so, we worked with them in a collaborative effort to design the board and the architecture and everything about it. The DAC is the Sabre DAC, the ES9038Q2M.

[00:03:58]Uh which is a 32-bit DAC. It's using the super high-end Burr Brown op-amps for the I to V conversion.

[00:04:05]>> Same parts that are used in the preamp, I mean excuse me, the DAC and the preamp in many cases, yeah.

[00:04:09]>> Yeah, so all the same parts, same type of architecture, and it's just It's just a stunning piece. The signal-to-noise ratio on it is for a streamer, this thing is pushing close to 120.

[00:04:22]>> Yeah, excellent.

[00:04:23]>> In the real world, yeah.

[00:04:24]>> Real world.

[00:04:25]>> And 4 volts out on your XLR, 2 volts out on your RCAs. So it's world You know, it'll drive anything.

[00:04:33]>> You know what's nice is the this web interface also with the Volumio. So you've got a really nice user interface, which I think we're showing right now.

[00:04:42]It gives you easy access to all your functionality, your your streaming sources, your music library. It's very polished. Again, it's constantly evolving and growing, and I find it to be very, very capable. And it's it's a pleasure to use. It's very, very stable.

[00:04:58]I've been running this thing in my office now for many months, and it just unlike some of the streamers I've had that had to be constantly rebooted or power cycled stuff, this thing's very, very stable.

[00:05:07]>> Yeah. It just runs.

[00:05:08]>> It just runs.

[00:05:09]>> And it sounds great. The interface is very logical and intuitive, and because it's a living platform, it's constantly improving and evolving, and I think you're going to love it. The sound quality's phenomenal, and the interface is stable and reliable, and it's a great piece.

[00:05:24]>> It's just a phenomenal piece.

[00:05:25]>> There you go. Nothing You'll love it.

[00:05:27]What could go wrong?

[00:05:28]>> That's right.

[00:05:29]>> There you go. Enjoy.

[00:05:30]>> Enjoy.

[00:05:30]>> We'll go on to the next product now.

[00:05:35]Well, look what we got here. We got the mighty DRD differential reference DAC.

[00:05:40]>> Yes.

[00:05:40]>> Another innovative nomenclature you came up with.

[00:05:43]>> Absolutely.

[00:05:44]>> So here you go. This is basically uh if you get down to it, this is a a is a pure digital version of our current differential reference stack without the analog subsystem. So >> Yep.

[00:05:57]>> the DAC itself, the interface, the basic design is almost identical to the full-size DAC.

[00:06:04]>> Mhm.

[00:06:04]>> And let's go through this the circuitry a little bit for those that may not be familiar with it.

[00:06:09]>> Absolutely. So like Dan said, this is this is essentially a mini version of our XDA-3.

[00:06:16]Uh we just took out the analog pass-through circuit and the volume controls for it. So you're running the Sabre ES9038Q2M.

[00:06:24]You've got the OPA What is it? OPA1656 and 1678s for your I to V's and for your drive stage. The USB bridge, which is actually really special on this thing. The USB bridge is the um Look at my cheat sheet notes.

[00:06:42]>> I can't say I can't remember all the parts forever.

[00:06:44]>> I don't know.

[00:06:45]>> No, it's like it's too many parts. So it's a CT7601, which what makes that special is the fact that it'll do 768 streaming as well as 512 DSD over DOP.

[00:06:57]Uh it's also got HDMI ARC, which is something that everybody's been asking for.

[00:07:01]>> A very nice feature to have, no doubt about that.

[00:07:04]>> Absolutely.

[00:07:04]>> The um The thing I want to note, too, is it's got the our beautiful OLED display on the front. So it's got a full information feedback on your bit rate, your inputs, all that thing. It's very, very fancy.

[00:07:15]>> The remote.

[00:07:15]>> And uh well, it comes with a metal remote control.

[00:07:23]Nice.

[00:07:24]And what's cool is as you And I'll seriously show the remote. Once you build the stack up, one remote will control the entire system. Your digital, your analog, it's one unified operating system here, and one remote does it all.

[00:07:36]Very nicely done, Lonnie.

[00:07:37]>> All right, thank you.

[00:07:38]>> Let's talk preamps.

[00:07:39]>> Let's talk preamps.

[00:07:41]>> [music] >> This may be my favorite product in the whole lineup. This beautiful little preamp, the DRP, again, brilliant name nomenclature. We're so innovative in the way we do that.

[00:07:56]Digital reference preamp or differential, excuse me, preamp.

[00:08:01]This thing is a sweet sweet preamp. This is a sleeper in the model lineup, in my opinion. It does so much, it's so simple to use. The sound quality is spectacular. It's got full bass management built into it, a killer little phono stage, a full OLED display on the front. Get down in the weeds a little bit on your design on this one.

[00:08:20]>> So, everybody knows about the XSP2.

[00:08:24]Killer, beautiful piece.

[00:08:27]The the whole idea behind the XSP2 was simplicity, which was using hermetically sealed relays, you know, very high quality interface both in and out for the op amps, all that kind of stuff. This is a mini XSP2.

[00:08:41]>> Yeah.

[00:08:41]>> And it's same architecture, same design philosophy.

[00:08:46]Everything's the idea of behind what this is is all the same. So, it's using a multi-channel volume control so that you've got your bass and your and your main outputs all running separately through the volume control that way it's not just like, you know, kind of being split afterwards. You've got built-in high pass and low pass at 80 hertz. You know, if you want more, obviously you got the XSP2, but >> But for most people that want to have a the sub to a small system, this gets you there.

[00:09:12]>> It gets you there. And the best part about it is the signal noise on it is through the roof, 120 dB.

[00:09:18]Frequency response 5 to over 80,000 hertz with less than half a dB deviation.

[00:09:24]>> It's a it's a sweet sweet piece. And check out the back here. Yeah, lots of headroom.

[00:09:29]>> So much headroom. You know that.

[00:09:30]>> You'll never clip it, >> ever.

[00:09:31]>> your analog ins, your balanced in, your balanced outs, your single ended outs, and a balanced subwoofer out, which is a nice feature. Phono stage is the same as the XSP2.

[00:09:41]>> Yep. It's phenomenal. And everything's addressable on the front panel.

[00:09:44]>> Right.

[00:09:46]>> Your filters are all done from the front panel, either remote or the encoder.

[00:09:49]>> It's all menu driven.

[00:09:50]>> It looks so simple. It looks um You think it's going to be just another small compact product. But the performance is spectacular.

[00:09:59]>> It hits way above its weight.

[00:10:00]>> And at its price point, I mean, it's just crazy. It's such a great value. It sounds so good. Very, very musical.

[00:10:06]Very, very quiet. And >> My favorite of the of the line.

[00:10:09]>> It really is. It's just a sleeper. You have no idea it's capable of the sound quality it is, and the capability performance-wise and feature-wise.

[00:10:16]>> Yeah.

[00:10:16]>> It's a a great piece. Well done, Lonnie.

[00:10:18]I like this one. I think it's a double handshake on that one. All right. Let's go to the next slide.

[00:10:23]>> Last one. Amp.

[00:10:24]>> Yeah, amp. It's amp time.

[00:10:29]Well, here we go, Lonnie. This is another sleeper in the line.

[00:10:33]>> It really is.

[00:10:34]>> We took a little different approach with this amplifier. We're big, big fans of Hypex. We've been I guess we've been friends of the company since the very beginning and the you know, I guess over 20 years I've been friends with the original founder of the company, Jan Peter. We we go way back with him.

[00:10:49]>> Mhm.

[00:10:49]>> I guess I should say the late Jan Peter, God bless him. Great guy. Really brilliant guy. And uh we became friends.

[00:10:56]We never did any business until uh later on.

[00:10:59]>> Yeah.

[00:10:59]>> Uh but the new Hypex NcoreX technology is phenomenal. The Ncore is in general, but the NcoreX is another level of performance.

[00:11:08]And uh you know, they've there's been a lot of talk about well, will my class D uh meter exceed class AB? And I think you're looking at the um at the change over right here. It's every bit as good. It's a different a little bit different character than a class AB amp, but I don't mean that in a negative way. That's not a There's that's no no uh shade on on this thing. It's phenomenal sounding. And then when you couple the power density, the efficiency, >> Yeah.

[00:11:34]>> uh the flexibility of the platform, it's really remarkable.

[00:11:37]It's a it measures incredibly well. And this little baby is What's our power output in this, Lonnie?

[00:11:42]>> So, it's 100 by 2 into 8, 175 by 2 into 4, and you can actually bridge it >> with that little magic switch in the back.

[00:11:49]>> features of this unit.

[00:11:51]>> There it is.

[00:11:52]>> You can bridge this thing to get 400 W into 4 ohms. And this power density, you can't beat. It's just incredible.

[00:11:59]>> That's a beautiful little thing. So, you get your single-ended, your balanced inputs, your your bridged or our stereo switch, and then your high-quality binding posts here. Trigger in and out, of course.

[00:12:08]>> Yep.

[00:12:09]>> Power, but look at that little baby.

[00:12:10]What a sweet piece.

[00:12:11]>> So, it's either a stereo amp or a mono amp, and you can use two of them if you want to get a lot of big power.

[00:12:16]>> Yep.

[00:12:17]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:12:17]>> had customers doing that, and then they they call us back and they're like they can't believe it. What's cool is we've got our own little microprocessor-controlled front end, our own input buffering circuitry.

[00:12:26]>> Uh >> We don't play the voicing game that some companies >> Yeah.

[00:12:30]>> do. We build a very high-quality, low-noise input buffer.

[00:12:33]>> Yep.

[00:12:33]>> We don't tailor the sound. The module sounds fantastic, but it does need a good input buffer on it >> It does.

[00:12:39]>> to isolate the input stage from the the uh the module itself.

[00:12:44]Great-sounding piece. They run cool. You can stack them up like cordwood. They just work.

[00:12:49]>> Yeah.

[00:12:49]>> We've had um this little differential reference stack running in our lobby of our building on some Nostalas for months and months, and it just it just works great.

[00:12:57]>> Probably 9 months by now.

[00:12:59]>> We did put that new special product in there recently.

[00:13:02]>> But uh this thing's amazing little piece.

[00:13:05]>> Yeah, it is.

[00:13:06]>> We've built a nice family of products for you. The Design Series uh is a little dressier, a little different take for things.

[00:13:15]If you've got a den, a family room, an office, >> Apartment.

[00:13:19]>> an apartment, a smaller space, but not smaller in performance, just where you need something more compact, but you want a full-featured sound system that you could be proud of, that you can really enjoy for many years to come.

[00:13:30]Give the differential reference design series a serious listen. They will blow your mind.

[00:13:36]Uh they are not toys. They are not compromised products. They're beautifully executed, beautifully built.

[00:13:42]The quality is top-notch and um Look at that. You got a little tower of power in 1 cubic foot.

[00:13:49]>> It's crazy.

[00:13:50]>> got the prototypes at my house. They've been running forever and they're just unbelievable. They're outstanding.

[00:13:55]>> We're we're too good to our customers.

[00:13:57]>> I know.

[00:13:58]>> Right?

[00:13:58]>> That's what we do.

[00:13:59]>> All right. We'll give you a little recap here in a sec.

[00:14:01]>> Yeah.

[00:14:01]>> I hope that gives you guys a better insight into what we've got going on with the design series, the differential reference design series. Lonnie, it's been a lot of fun building these.

[00:14:10]>> It has.

[00:14:10]>> And we never thought they'd get done, but we got them done.

[00:14:13]>> Well, you perfection takes time.

[00:14:15]>> That's right. And a job well done, Lonnie. And I hope you guys enjoy these things in your home as much as we've enjoyed the process of making them and remaking them and getting them right.

[00:14:26]Well done, Lonnie Von. Thank you.