Emotiva xpa-1 - Page 2

I figured 2 XPA-1's and 3 XPA-2's for a 7.1 system. One of the XPA-2's would be bridged to feed the center channel. This would cost about 4000ish depending on the sale/deal you got. Most surrounds and centers are 8 Ohm.(Mine are with 4 Ohm L&R)

I would think the sunfire amp would be enough for anyone but this is a "more than enough" amp we are talking about anyway. I'm sure that XPA setup would out preform and sound better and look better(coolness factor) than any sunfire or anything else out there for the $$$.

The problem.....How much freaking current would that draw? I'm guessing no 15A circuit could support that. I would probably have someone run dedicated 220 lines so there wouldn't be any problems. A sunfire on the other hand has a lot higher efficiency so it would run fine on one 15A circuit. I'm not sure if it would sound as good as an A/B design tho. I think they sound great but I have never had the chance to swap back and forth on the same speakers in the same room.

I just have a funny feeling that the XPA-1 is going to give us more slam than anything else out there. Period.

Lucky for me I have the Sunfire and the XPA-5 so I know what does what The sunfire is a better amp, size, heat, performance (Im not talking stupid subjective SQ here either). XPA-5 is a great amp too but it doesnt put out 850W into 4 ohms. Of course the sunfire is 4-5x more new....I got it for just under 3x the price used.

As for slam.....Pro amps are better period, the best system I have heard or seen built have QSC or Crown amps stacked.....these systems can not be beat. You want slam then one of those amps is the choice. Not pretty though but most custom rooms are built with equipment rooms adjacent to them, I personally do not care to look at any equipment.

If people want to say Emotiva stuff looks good and Pro-audio stuff looks ugly...I would say its ALL UGLY stuff....its hardward and electronics it can never look good


btw, I have a 20 amp circuit and both the sunfire (5x425) and the XPA-5 is on it.....I can drive my active system in my HT room to extreme levels without a problem, I also have a Panamax that will tell me the amps, never gets extremely high. Alone that XPA-1 can run on a 15A circuit no problem. I have run something like a FACE F1200TS on a 15amp circuit without a problem, it drives 4 18" IB subs.......it would kick the XPA-1s butt all over the map period!!

Conclusion the XPA-1 has a sort of coolness factor (gotta love huge power for no reason ) but its for people who just wasting money and have limited knowledge on what is truely available or what power is really needed.

I wish I could A/B the sunfire with the xpa series. I have an ice powered amp now so I know what you mean by "subjective".

Using Ohms law, your sunfire and xpa-5 should be fine on one 20A circuit. Remember that the sunfire is like 90%ish effecient and the xpa is like 65%ish. I bet you have one hell of a line sag tho!

If your such a fan of pro amps then why do you use sunfire and emotiva?

if I had unlimited space I would have.....when I built my room I had no idea I would be building main speakers with active crossovers (3-way designs). This means I need 9 amp channels just for the 3 speakers Next house I build will have a complete AV/structured wiring/Networking/full house AV distribution room



The Sunfire is simply an incredible amp! its half the weight of the XPA-5 (remember weight means nothing in terms of performance), it runs very cool, it has 5 channels that give me 425W @ 8 ohms or 850W @ 4 ohms...its just a sick, incredible amp that drives two of my ported subs and my 3 12" pro audio high SPL drivers in my mains......its perfect and it doesnt take up all my rack space.

The Emotiva amps are BEASTS to handle or move, that is their biggest draw back.

my pro amps still drive other subs in the house and they are the best choice for subs still over any comercial solution.



Probably true, How can I measure that?

I had four Crown XLS402's powering my system and switched to the XPA2 and XPA5 and sound quality has been an improvement to my ears. I am running Salk Sound HT2's up front and Salk HTS Center channel. I have Swans for surrounds and rears. I sold three of the Crowns as soon as I was satisfied with the increase of sound quality and use the fourth to power my Buttkicker Shaker. The Xpa2 just seem to open up my HT2's, like a veil was removed from them. I use to listen to music in surround mode but with my Salk speakers and XPA2 I only listen to 2 channel sound in 2 channel.

I'm not talking about the power output, just the THD+N.

Audioholics measured the XPA-2 with its 2nd-order harmonic at 1W at -76dB (0.15%) and at 250W at -73dB (0.02%). They measured the RPA-1 at 1W at -101dB (0.0009%) and at 200W at -90dB (0.003%).

The XPA-2 certainly provides more max power for a given amount of distortion, but also more distortion at not-max power.

Unfortunately Sunfire claims their 7401 is 400W into 8 ohms at 0.5% THD (and they didn't say +N). Its clean power output must be lower.

You can measure line sag if you have a sensitive voltmeter on your outlet. It'll drop the voltage when the current pull increases.

I have lots of cash for you when you can hear even .5% THD at reference levels.....meaning when we are using 400W there isnt any point to worry about the THD because you are going deaf anyways

I would send the Sunfire off to Chuck for testing (he has tested lots of amps on the DIY forum and I have sent 3 different amps too him) but his tests are pretty extreme and Im not sure I want to risk $2K for no real reason.

This would be for transients, of course. But it's this sort of distortion that makes it so you don't like hearing those transients, yeah? Imagine the yuckiness of TV built-in speakers whenever it goes loud.

I can tell when I'm pushing things to distortion with my MPS-1. It doesn't sound good. That's why I would like 1000W/ch. Of course it could be my speakers too. I have a 7.1 Onix Reference setup.

Blah, thats not much at all....those of us with a little bigger systems have a little more power Heck, I wouldnt even bother with a F113 for movie playback...I would be disappointed

This is getting a bit OT, but I use a single EP2500 (~1000W RMS I think) for 4 x 15" dual sealed sonotubes each with a volume of 8.7 cubic feet. Shelf filter so it will play flat to 5Hz @ 115dB at my seat after room gain. The power rating on a Fathom (2500W) or Gotham (3800W) is short-term. EP2500 short term is 2400W.

Did you get a chance to hear them yet? I like to run my LCR's low and cross over to the sub ~50hz. That takes some power. The main difference I notice in amps is the bass output. Lower powered amps just don't deliver down low. I've used QSC amps with my B&W's for years because of that.

I'm in a new room now where everything is more up close and personal. The cooling fans in QSC bother me during quite passages and I've always missed having 12v trigger to turn the amps on & off with the processor. The xpa-1 would take care of both of those issues without taking a step back in wattage. Actually 500w would give me some more headroom. The super low THD specs are gravy.

I've always wanted to try Sunfire amps, but they're not available for demo in my area. For the price differnce, I think I'd be inclined to go with monoblocks anyway.

I modded all my QSC amps....not hard too do! $10 for online fans and 10 minutes to do it.

Nope, if you go comercial...you need to spend 10K+ to have what I have Although the Gotham is a sick beast! You would need to add a couple Gotham's to get my displacement.

The quietest fan I could find is the thermistor one by Silenx. It is very, very quiet.

I built my own 12V trigger box using a DPDT relay from Radio Shack, but recently switched over to a Furman MP-20Q because this let me wire directly to the wall. (20A circuit, 12A per outlet)

I'm just wonering how you can make a statement like this without having listened to this amp?

I would be very interested in reading about your impressions once you did have them connected to your system, and you've had the chance of doing a listening session.

First review of XPA-1s at Home Theater Hifi. Sounds pretty promising, look forward for more to come.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/ampli...amplifier.html

While I have never heard them, and may never do so, Emotiva has to be given credit for producing some apparently excellent audio products at a fraction of the cost of the competition - thanks mainly to the "miracle" of low-cost third world labor, of course.

Did you ever get a chance to try these with your 802D's? I am thinking about going the same route

Does anyone own the XPA-1? If so, what are your thoughts?

Has anyone listened to one yet ?
It is 6 months after launch and the Secrets review is the only one I have seen.

I am interested to see how it compares to the IcePower ASP-1000
(DSonic,Wyred4Sound) and the Hypex UCD700/400
(Exodus, Channel Islands)

I thought with the awesome review in Secrets that many other publications would jump on the bandwagon and talk more about Emotiva's amps, specifically the XPA-1 and XPA-2. The reviews from Secrets are pretty glowing.

Well you could try the Emotiva forums. There's a number of reviews in their forums. There's a link at the upper right hand corner of their web page.

If you want bang for your buck none of those others you list are going to touch the Emo. The main difference between the ICEpower amps and the XPA is size and weight. The ICE amps are a lot smaller and lighter.

Based on published measurements, there is no comparison - emotiva xpa-1 measures much better. ASP-1000-based amps have very high distortion at high frequencies and a frequency-dependent phase shift.

I had Wyred 4 sound st1000 and sx1000. I initially liked them but I've always had a problem with high frequencies in some recordings. Some recordings were simply unlistenable and I thought that the recordings were the problem. Then I ordered XPA-1 to try and the problems I had with W4S simply disappeared. I sold W4S and kept XPA-1. My speakers are B&W802D.

stereomojo.com has an upcoming review of the XPA-1s