Mary told me the other day that people who have our DVA A2D analog to digital converter are incredibly happy with them. This motivated me to say a few words about its origins, explore some of the decisions that went into its design, and answer some relevant questions.

I'm prompted to write this because of a video by GoldenSound titled Why you can't trust audio measurements I recently watched. The video highlights a number of issues regarding the reliability and applicability of audio specifications and their measurement. In so doing, it presents an opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Many folks agree that the DVA Digital Preamplifier DAC is something special.¹ Clients who have them love them. Last year, The Sound Advocate proclaimed, "The Van Alstine DVA Digital Preamp is unquestionably recommended!" And most recently, Part Time Audio included it in one of their "best of 2025" lists, stating, "My entire system sounded faster, cleaner and more powerful with the Van Alstine DVA Digital Preamplifier."

We've kind of grown used to this kind of praise. :-)

There are myriad details that make the DVA Digital Preamplifier what it is, including the high-performance discrete gain circuits that we covered previously, the carefully balanced reconstruction filter design, and the use of low impedance active voltage references for the DAC IC. This post is about another subtle yet important detail: How the DVA Digital Preamplifier resolves a dilemma regarding support for both XLR differential and RCA single-ended outputs.

A discrete audio opamp I designed a while back and that's used in AVA products to this day will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year. So, I thought the time was right to say some things about it and discrete audio in general.

TL;DR: It's not important.