Official Emotiva XPA-5 Owners Thread - Page 12

About your question on what to buy: two XPA-100 (250W) monoblocks that will run for $758.00 (pair), or one the XPA-2 (300W per channel) for $ 679.00? Well, if it was me, I would pull the trigger on the XPA-2 anyway. More power for less money.

In addition of power/money thing, my additional logic is: growth. You see, the XPA-2 can be used in a bridged configuration @ 8 ohm "only". So, down the road you can add a second XPA-2 to your system. In other words, you will have a dedicated XPA-2 for the right channel and the other one for the left channel. But remember, you can only do that if you are using 8 ohm speakers. Which is your case already with the Energy Veritas.

If music is your thing, oh boy a pair of XPA-2's will blown you away!!!

On the Emotiva link provided by BarracudaDelGato, you will see the number to call Emotiva for international orders: 1-877-366-8324 or you can contact them by e-mail: sales@emotiva.com

They are really good responding to e-mails, so you will not wait for long to receive a response. Just keep in mind of the holidays and I'm not sure if they are going to be open tomorrow (12/24).

One more thing to consider (I know that you already mentioned that you want "new"), but you can ask Emotiva if they have "B" Stock on the XPA-2. You can save a bit there that might help you to offset part of the importation costs. Just something to consider.

Are they gone now!?!?!?

What do you think?!??!

Do you like it?!?!?

tboe77 are you there?!?!?


LOL...............congrats man. Hopefully everything will be alright and you will be one more completely satisfied Emotiva's customer.

BTW - as soon you have everything up and running, could you please share your initial impressions and provide a bit more information of the system that you are using? I know you have a Denon 3808CI, but what else do you have?

Hahaha . . . running Audyssey now. Measurements are done. The Denon is running the calculations now. Takes a bit of time. I'll also save the settings to my computer before doing anything else.

In the meantime my othe gear is:

Fronts: Paradigm Studio 20 v4
Center: Paradigm Studio CC-490 v5
Surrounds: Paradigm Mini Monitor v3
Subwoofer: SVS PB10-NSD
Display: Samsung PN50A550 (plasma)
PS3 (blu-ray)
Apple TV

Nice setup....thanks for sharing it. Looking forward to hear your impressions, but don't rush it.

Take your time to perform this, and go over the material that you know best. Like the best tracks that you like and have available. Or chapters in your favorites movies. So, you will be able to accurately identify if there are differences before and after your XPA-5.

Stay away from digital records (MP3 or such) with low sound quality, their flaws will be more evident with the addition of the XPA-5. In my case, they sounded pretty bad after adding my amps........

Unfortunately, I can't be much help in this regard. I changed speakers at the same time I added the amplifier. There's definitely a big improvement in sound quality, but I can't say how much is due to the speakers and how much is due to the amp.

I just acquired the Studio series speakers this week. I had planned to run them on the AVR for a while, and get the amp later, but Emotiva's sale changed my mind. I had seen 10% off before, but at 15% off, I couldn't resist. Still, I didn't expect the XPA-5 to arrive so quickly. I thought I'd have the speakers a few days before it arrived. As it happened, though, I picked up the Studio 20s on Friday and the XPA-5 arrived that day as well. Then my wife told me she had plans to take our daughter on a play-date this morning, so I hooked everything up last night so that I'd be ready to run Audyssey as soon as they left.

I did so, and it sounds fantastic! SO much more detail, and much much better imaging. Also, it is so much smoother for music. The harshness I heard with my Titan Monitors is gone. I am VERY pleased with the sound. It has more punch, sounds more vibrant and "live".

This setup will have me grinning for a while! Merry Christmas to me! Hahaha . . .

Merry Christmas to all of you! I don't expect to be on here so much for the next few days, but I'll be back . . .

I think I paid about $80 between duties and the infamous "brokerage" fee. Freight was about $80. Then there's taxes, of course.
At least Emotiva will tell you in advance what all the costs are, then you can make your decision.

That's all cool man!

Important thing is that you are happy with your new toy. Post a couple of pics to see how everything looks....

Merry Christmas to you too!

Cheers.

Well after reading this entire thread. I will be ordering my xpa-5 tomorrow. To power my studio 100 v5, cc 690 v5 and my 2 adp 590's. I just finished my HT theater and it sounds good now, but I want it to sound great. My amp is marantz 7007. Can't wait

Low bit MP3 will sound bad. However, high quality MP3 are the ones that I'm using now and everything is fine.

You got it on the difference between the XPA-2 or XPA-100. Go with the one that you thing is going to be best for you.

I don't have a straight answer on the real power on XPA-2 bridged (one channel). But as per the information available on the net, the power measured is around 800 to 1000 watts.....


Congrats man! Really cool setup you have at home........enjoy!

Welcome to the club!

Please prepare your best material to give it a nice try to the new amp and post back your initial impressions. BTW - that Marantz is a beauty!

Is a 5 years warranty on the amps that is transferable if you decided to sell it later. Big plus on resell value.....

Cash that you might need to buy a tube amp in few years, perhaps.

Yes it has plenty of ventilation there. It doesn't need a dedicated circuit (at least not in my house, anyway).

The warranty is 5 years.

Pretty hard to say for home audio speakers considering the power ratings aren't usually as well defined as for pro audio speakers. However, in my opinion, once you're going with twice as much or more power as the speaker mfg recommends then you're probably, from a practical standpoint, in that "too much power" range.

On the other hand, from an operational standpoint, YOU control whether or not the speaker blows. It's not the amp, it's not the volume control, it's YOU that determines what happens by how YOU operate the equipment.

Clipping is generally not well understood. The clipped waveform in and of itself is not the primary factor in whether or not the speaker blows. When an amp is driven into clipping more power can be delivered to the drivers and that is the main reason they can blow. But, by that same token, a small amp driven to clipping all day long won't hurt a speaker with sufficient power handling capacity. It's complex thing. Clipping, while not good, isn't necessarily a death sentence for a speaker and certainly not necessarily an instant one.
Edited by whoaru99 - 12/24/12 at 7:22am

Even if, in some cases, monoblocks might sound better (I don't want to start an argument here) , I'm a believer in upgrading the weakest links in the audio chain and figuring in bang-for-the-buck. The first question I'd ask myself is, is it reasonable to expect better SQ from monos in my setup? The second is, if so, would that added bit of SQ be worth the added expense, size, etc. vs a MC amp?

Yeah, delta, it's running perfectly! I've really been enjoying music since I got my Studio 20s and my XPA-5.

I'm going to have the house to myself on Friday, so I'll have a chance to watch a movie or two!

Delta, so did you finally decide what to buy?

Yes, that is what I achieved by adding an XPA-2 to drive my fronts and the XPA-5 to take care of the rest of the speakers. So, basically I was using my Yamaha RX-A1010 as pre-amp.

You will be the one behind the wheel taking control of the volume level, so you can be confident that you will not be pushing the speakers to its limits. I don't think your ears will allow you anyway..........

I'm currently listening music and I can't pass -15dB on my receiver, it is way too loud, but at the same time only clean sound "no" distortion at all. Wait............they are playing Faithfully by Journey............-10dB here I go!

Nothing better to go directly to the source. If the fine folks at Emotiva are recommending you to go with the XPA-100 then do it man. Yeah, you can always add a XPA-5 later for the rest of your speakers.

About wire speakers, I built my own cables (see pics below) and I purchased Monoprice's interconnects.




Try to stay warm man!

Well,the upgraditis of my HT is in full swing..Here is my question..

My System

Panny AE4000(replaced Panny PT-AX200U)
106' Elite Screen
Denon 3808CI(replaced Denon 3803)
Klipsch RF7
Klipsch RC7(replaced RC3 FINALLY!) : )
Klipssch RB3
Klipsch RW12(being replaced by Rythmik FV15HP)

Now Im looking @ the XPA-5 because of the sale.My room is 15x18 with a cathedral ceiling.I do mostly movies moderate to high levels.
I have been told constantly that using an AVR with my RF7's is really limiting and I should put 200 watts through them and the XPA-5 fits the bill for my wallet.Not interested in ear splitting levels but more for quality,soundstage etc.Will this be a waste of $$ ?
Was also thinking about the UMC 200 but I see a lot of people using Denon AVrs for the job.i got 3808CI like new for $400 a few weeks back so should I keep it or go for the UMC 200?

Thanks for any input.

The Denon 3808CI is a really good receiver and it's listed at 130 watts per channel. But, we know it is not exactly accurate, if you have more than two speakers hooked to the receiver. So, to answer your question (my personal experience): "yes", you will gain in sound quality by really giving 200 watts of clean power to each of your speakers. If you listening habits are moderate to high levels, then the XPA-5 is a great option for you. In any case you can try the amp at home and if you don't like it, then you can return it back to Emotiva. But, I really doubt it will happen........

You can't really beat the Dollar/Watts ratio by buying a XPA-5 amp.

the Denon 3808CI was measured by Home Theater.com at
119 watts per channel (5 channels driven) .1% distortion.
Thats VERY close to the spec of 130wpc.

7 channel performance was only 113 wpc!

I'd say that is pretty accurate

http://www.hometheater.com/content/denon-avr-3808ci-av-receiver-ht-labs-measures