Official Emotiva XPA-5 Owners Thread - Page 2

The answer to both is a Denon 3805 (well, a 3890, but same difference). For movie playback we feed it with analog ext. in from an Auzentech X-Meridian. The card is known to output high voltages, so we run it at <100% volume, which means that our preamping is a bit of a mess.

As mentioned above, we are contemplating a new receiver with support for Audyssey (but less than 9 channel amplification). At that time, we expect to feed the receiver digital audio, and to use it as part pre/pro, part receiver.

Dude, Audyssey calibration does WAY more than what your doing with the decibel meter. That just equalizes the Db from the listening position to each speaker. Audyssey will actually EQ your speakers to your room so to help reduce reflections and nulls, etc. Make sure and use the full amount of positions your reciever handles when doing the audyssey calibration.

Why thankfully?? What is so bad about fans? The noise or something else? I was thinking about buying a used ADA amp, but have heard they all (6150, MPA 501, etc) use fans...

Fans are used for cooling purposes. Over time they can fatigue and become audible. Fans are installed in some amps to aid in cooling which will reduce the size of the heat sinks necessary which in turn reduces the overall size and weight of the amp.

Hey there, can an owner or knowledgeable fellow answer a question for me please? Is it possible to bridge four of the channels into two, (for a total of 2 channels at 400w each)?

I would like to do this and then save up for a seperate 2 channel amp, like XPA-2, then move the remain XPA-5 channels around to my surrounds and center.

Is the first question regarding bridging possible? Thank you so much!!!

Zulu

No I don't think bridging on the XPA-5 is possible or advisable. The XPA-2 can be bridged via a switch on the rear of the amp. The XPA-5 lacks this switch. Pull up the manuals and have a look. I own an XPA-5 and have dealt with the XPA-2. You can get a little more power to your mains when using the XPA-5 in stereo mode because the center and surrounds are sitting idle. Leaving the power supply to only power two amps out of the five. It has been advised that if you have difficult speakers to drive and intend on using high volumes that you could run into trouble doing this. Emotiva recommends using a dedicated 2 channel amp if you fit into this category.

Thank you Secret Squirrel. I suspected this, since I was not seeing the bridge option published anywhere...I think you are right about the two channel amp, I have known that logic for sometime...I just really wanted a Christmas miracle.

Just received my XPA-5 last Tuesday, so
I've had it set up and running for less than a week. First of all, showed up in perfect shape (no dents, all LED's same brightness)...secondly, It makes an awesome addition to my Denon AVR-4810...Great Amp!!! Can't believe how warm the sound is and truly how much headroom there is..may add another! Great job Emotiva! Heres a pic of the amp with my gear.

Nice gear. I just got my Xpa5 friday. Just waiting for my interconnects and speaker cable to arrive. I noticed theres not much clearance above your amp, are you concerned about heat?

I have a call into Emotiva tech dept (from this morning...I guess they are busy). Does anyone know if one can run both 4ohm speakers and 8ohm speakers at the sametime on this amp? My front three are 4 ohm speakers, my sides are 8ohm speakers. If I read the manual correctly, it would appear that this arrangement is discouraged.

Yes, you can. I've had several different speakers at different ohms running with the XPA-5 and never had an issue. It's a powerful amp.

I ran three 4ohm speakers on the front and two 8ohm in the rear with no problems.

Just got an XPA-5 and wondering if its a must to rerun audyssey calibration on my Denon 3808. Thanks.

Unless you have an SPL meter and want to manually calibrate it...

My XPA-5 really helped with my 7.1 POLK RTIA speakers, my next upgrade is to add 2 XPA1s to drive my RTI A9s.

more details are there and the speakers shine, this is compared to the yamaha 665 that was driving them initially.

best upgrade so far.

Thank you so much! This is the direct comparison I have been looking for, it is helping me to move in this direction.

I am very excited. Can you describe the level of detail(s) or what exactly you heard for the first time?

Very much appreciated,
Zulu

Hey guys,

I currently have an XPA-5 driving my setup and was thinking about adding a UPA-2 and getting some surround back speakers. I plan to also upgrade to the UMC-1 for the 7.1 setup. My question is with the power difference, will the UPA-2 play nicely with the XPA-5?


I'm running Definitive Technology:
BP7000's fronts
CLR3000 center
BPVX surrounds
Reference Supercube

The XPA-5 and UPA-2 should work fine together. Rear surrounds don't handle that much information and the speakers you have listed should really not need a lot of extra amplification. Im guessing that you are going with a pair of BPVX as rear surrounds.

Actually, I am considering either a pair of CLR2002's or SM 450's. One of my buddies also suggested moving the XPA-5 to center, surround, and surround back duty, and getting 2 UPA-1's for front L and R. Thoughts on that?

Can you tell me what type of built in eq this amp uses?

I think that 2 UPA-1's powering your mains along with an XPA-5 for the other channels would work fine. You would have about the same amount of power available to all channels. You would really have a little more power available for your mains since the mono blocks will have their own power supplies. Im using a similar set up. Except that Im using a pair of XPA-1's for my mains, along with an XPA-5 for the rest of my other channels. Im really happy with the results.

No posts here for a while. Just reserved an Emotiva XPA-5 after reading lots of reviews. Emo said shipping 2/15/11. Haven't purchased any new equipment in a while.

Emotiva XPA-5 4ohm speakers. 5008 AVR.
I am getting tweeter hiss
Anyone else, and is it fixable?

How far away from the speaker can you hear the hiss? What kind of speakers do you have? What are the sensitivity ratings on the speakers that you hear the hiss?

I get some hiss from my XPA-3. But you have to practically stick your ear next to the tweeter. Higher sensitivity speakers will be worse.

I have a very slight tweeter hiss from my XPA-5. You have to stick your ear right next to the tweeter and really listen for it. As MichaelJHuman said, I think this depends greatly on speaker sensitivity. My speakers that the XPA-5 powers are 90db sensitive. My mains on the other hand are 97db sensitive. I have a pair of XPA-1 mono blocks powering those. They also have a very very slight tweeter hiss. Quieter than the XPA-5. The XPA-1 is supposed to be quieter than the XPA-5 according to what Emotiva tells me. So what Im experiencing seems to be normal. As I said before you would never no any of my speakers had a slight tweeter hiss unless you stuck your ear up to the tweeter with no content playing. You need to be as close a 1 or 2 inches and really listen good to know it's there. I simply did it because I was looking for it. It is never heard otherwise.

Emotiva is doing a serious update to their User's Guide for the XPA-5 (.pdf file), which has so many errors --- to many to mention here, and it is totally different than what their web site states -- they are not even close to being in sync.
Also, the 12Vdc Trigger Cable is approx. 2 Meters in length they tell me verbally, and it comes with the XPA-5. Also, the XPA-5 is thermally burned-in at the factory for about 8 hrs. at what temp. they didn't know, but they at Emotiva recommend that you let it soak a while at your room temperature before applying some max. power to it -- which makes good sense, so thermally it is stabilized at room temperature. Also, they recommend a minimum of a couple inches (+2") of clearance on the top surface for ventilation, even though it does not run very hot even under a lot of sourced output power. After reading the User's Guide (.pdf) downloaded from web, and comparing it to their web site, I really got concerned since they were totally different and called them out on it -- since I could not figure out what the Real Specs of the XPA-5 where and are. Glad Emotiva is now aware of this issue -- hopefully they get it cleared up soon, as they have good web forum writeups. BTW -- the weight of unit is 66 Pounds Net., and not 75.4# as the User's Guide shows. Definately run the power cord directly into your AC outlet not a surge protector. Anybody else notice these differences between the User's Guide and their web site? What documentation comes with the XPA-5 (the User's Guide - which is totally hosed up and erroneous in specs/detail)? I certainly hope the physical XPA-5 unit is considerably better than their meaningless User's Guide. I have one on order, but this concerns me about their Quality within Engr./Tech. Writing!! Hopefully, the physical product is super sound # for #...