I noticed in this forum, and a few others, that the E30 - while incredibly capable as a DAC - seems to introduce distortion while in pre-amp mode.
I know this is not just happening in my head.
This is my budget audio home office setup:
I originally had a Schiit Modi 3 paired with an Emotiva A-100 amp.
The Emotiva introduced audible distortion for the first 15-20 minutes of listening. So I replaced it with the IOM Ncore.
Sidenote: I actually reached out to Emotiva's customer service about this pre-warm up distortion. They effectively told me this should not (read: was not) happening! Luckily, Google brought me to Amir's tests of this amp. He confirmed it was not in my head
The Schiit DAC sounded just fine to my ears, but I really wanted the functionality of a pre-amp, so that volume can be controlled via remote.
Hence switching up to the Topping E30. Which sounds great, btw - in DAC mode.
But in pre-amp mode, this cute little Topping is adding distortion. Has anyone figured out a solution for this?
Any combination of amp / pre-amp volume levels has not fixed it.
So to be clear,
I can of course, just use the Topping in DAC mode. But that renders the remote's volume controls unusable.
I really want this to work. In my research, I could not find another well tested dac/preamp combo at this price point.
Please help!!