TimberHo

Thank you Old Listener and dtc! I was not aware of the internal volume option under the player tab in jriver. This was the fix!

Cool. Looks like the Emotiva is a passive unit Control Freak Passive Volume Control | Emotiva

So have a set of powered Emotiva 4S Speakers with a Schitt Modi Multibit DAC I just hooked up. If I have just Direct Sound selected as the audio device in JRiver will it still run the Modi DAC to its fullest potential? Or do I need to select Schitt Audio Gen 2 as the the audio device? Reason being when I do select Schitt Audio Gen 2 as the the audio device I don't have a way to currently control the volume. Adjusting it in JRiver and Windows does nothing...it just plays at full blast. I'll probably end up buying an Emotiva Control Freak for volume control just wondering in the interim.

Thanks. So in your opinion there is no advantage to sound quality by adding in an audiophile grade pre-amp / integrated amp?

Have the Emotiva Airmotiv 4S powered monitors...they have RCA connections. Most of the pre amp and integrated amps I am seeing have the traditional speaker wire hook ups for the outputs... Anyone have a recommendation for how to hooks these up to an amp? or an amp recommendation for this scenario? Using them as PC desktop speakers

Phish has been doing this for years. Live HD webcasts. And the sound quality is excellent. You can purchase and download in 24bit all of their shows within an hour of them ending on livephish.com. Widespread Panic even streams their show's audio live for free. The sound quality is great. They also let you download for free.

Anyone read this review of Beats vs all the other streaming services (except Tidal)...claiming Beats is streaming CD Quality uncompressed WAV files over WiFi? The TRUTH about MUSIC Streaming Services and the ULTIMATE AUDIO QUALITY shootout test: Beats vs MOG vs Play Music (by Google) vs Rdio vs Spotify » MArC UrSELLI

Anyone read this review of Beats vs all the other streaming services (except Tidal)...claiming Beats is streaming CD Quality uncompressed WAV files over WiFi? The TRUTH about MUSIC Streaming Services and the ULTIMATE AUDIO QUALITY shootout test: Beats vs MOG vs Play Music (by Google) vs Rdio vs Spotify » MArC UrSELLI

Brilliant. Thanks Eloise!

DAC > AVR Audio 1 (in) > AVR Pre Amp Out > Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum Phono (in) > Front Left and Right speakers hooked up to the Cronus and everything else hooked up to the AVR for surround sound. Sound is great! Very loud though so curious about how to balance the levels in setup?

Thanks. The Integrated amp is a Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum...so the bypass inputs would be the Phono Inputs? I initially had it hooked up the way Audio ELF mentioned but using the Aux 1 inputs and the receiver kept shutting down. The AV receiver does have Pre Amp Outs.

Is there any sense in going DAC > Integrated Amp > to AV Receiver audio line in ? Seems to work but wondering about audio quality loss. Not a bad Yamaha Receiver with a Pure Direct mode which basically drops all the sound field programs and tone controls on the receiver to use the least amount of circuitry possible. I tried to hook the Amp up to the Pre-Amp Out on the Receiver but I'm guessing it was too much power because the receiver kept shutting down when going above low volume. Pondering these questions as I think through this.... Can you still do surround sound with a DAC > Amp in the front of the signal chain being that they drive the left and right channels? I believe an Amp is meant to drive the speakers so if you put it in front of the AV Receiver (which has the speakers hooked up to it) would it still drive the speakers or provide any benefit?

Ideas on ways to hook them up order and connection wise? (including speakers) Looking to utilize the receiver for the surround sound...

Side question....anyone know if pono will come with headphones and what kind?

In windows 7 when you right click on the volume logo in the taskbar and go to "Playback Devices" > choose your speaker device properties > advanced tab ...you can choose the default sample rate that music plays at. Is there a way that Windows will automatically determine the sample rate of the streaming music / music file and play it at that rate? When I use my DACs default driver TUSBAudio in JRiver this works but if I am in Spotify/WinAmp for an example I can't use this driver...