emotiva xpa3 or xpa5

Haven't read anything about the UPA-7 not being good for a 5.1 setup. Why not buy the UPA7 and use the unused amps for bi-amping the fronts L/R. Try it, doesn't seem there would be anything to lose. If its not the sound you want or like return it. Then get the XPA3 to power the fronts and let your receiver power the surrounds.

Yes there was a suggestion to that effect, but frankly it seems like nonsense to me.

The XPA-3 is my typical suggestion to people who are going to be using an AVR as a pre-pro. Since the amps in the AVRs are almost always more than sufficient for powering surround channels, especially when they don't have to drive the most demanding speakers (mains + center).


Biamping, doesn't really accomplish very much if anything, with normal setups. You get more power with fewer channels in use anyway. So, I would just use the fewer channels.

The UPA-7 should drive your Rockets just fine. I've owned one for nearly a year and drive a somewhat more difficult load than the 850s - a pair of Emotiva 8.3s as part of a 5.1 speaker setup - 4 ohm speakers. I doubt Emotiva would advise against using the UPA-7 in a 5.1 setup. An idling amp just does not use much power which leaves more for the other channels.

Where are you shopping? I see an occasional UPA-7 for sale - but not in 'bunches'.

Here you OP. Right here for sale on this site.



http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/vbcla...do=ad&id=11706

The XPA-3 makes the most sense to me. The surround channel peaks were lower when I measured them for one movie. My surround speakers are also closer than my front speakers which also requires less power.

So you actually *own* either an Emotiva XPA-3 or XPA-5 amp??

Have you recently gotten a job?

Cheers

Having an XPA or any other amp has nothing to do with measuring peaks. Peaks are a function of the source material.

No. I did add a Mackie two channel amp to my system, and maybe I could play music a little louder. That was 200 watts / channel. I figure if you are going to get an amp, you want to power at least the front three channels, as peak center levels are just as high as peak L/R levels. Maybe even a dB higher on the movie scene I tested.

I was basing my suggestion on my measurements of peak / channel levels, and what I would buy if I bought an amp today.

If I implied otherwise, I apologize.

Still looking for work. None of my leads have panned out. Just got another nibble today though.

Which is what I suspected.




Odds are that I'm out of line, and that my asking about the job situation was also out of line; good luck with that.

My point was that you don't have any real experience with Emotiva amps, which is also true for me.

Cheers

You know you can actually use basic logic and common sense to answer these sorts of questions.

Unlike a lot of people, MJH makes a significant effort to help people out around here and answer all those basic questions that keep coming up over and over again.

You might want to try it sometime.

Out of honest curiosity, have you owned/used either an Emotiva xpa3 or xpa5 amp?

My bet it that you've not.

Cheers

If I have or have not, how does that make absolutely any difference to the recommendation?

Are you claiming that without having tested every last piece of equipment you can offer no useful advice on them given a fairly straightforward question?

This is not rocket science. There are no mystic secrets involved. No black magic rituals necessary.

One can use basic math to arrive at answers on this sort of issue given a few basic pieces of information. A lot of it simply isn't that complicated, despite the claims of the "audio requires mystic mojo" crowd.

If you bother to do just a bit of digging you can find the answer to your amp question BTW. Just click on my user name and select "Find more posts".