Emotiva XPA-5 in 7.2 Setup

Since you already have it, I'd just run the front five with the XPA5 and use the receiver for two rear surrounds. Just enjoy your gear without regrets!

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you wasted your money...

buying the xpa-3 would be wasting your money too... just wasting less...

sorry...

Emo does not suggest only using 3 of the 5 amps on the XPA-5. So I suggest running a 5.1 setup using the XPA-5.

If you have 7.1, use the receiver for the rear surrounds or side surrounds (side surrounds, if they are close to you, would maybe be best served by the receiver, as greater distance = greater power needed.)

And your reasoning for this is...?

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because the a1010 will drive the speakers he has just fine all by itself...

Hook up the 5 channels and enjoy your new amp. Some people just cant be happy for other people and need to force their beliefs upon others. I on the other hand and happy for you and you will enjoy the amp of that i am sure. I would call Emo and see if they will do anything for you on the price. I Bought mine just after there christmas sale and they honored the sale price. They may have a price gaurantee based on time,check their site. I bought the xpa 3 and i love it . I have 4 ohm speaker so that was part of my motivation. It runs super cool even under pressure.

since you didn't indicate that you are going into thermal/clipping now, yes, there's no "need" for it...

it's not going to sound any "better"...

save your money... amplifiers are always available if needed... they aren't gonna stop making them tomorrow...

This is the truth. However, since you already have the amp, just enjoy it.

he asked a question and got a "fact based" answer... not a "belief based" one...

you may not like that... that's too bad...

I did not notice a difference with my XPA-3 added to my Yamaha Z7. But some people might notice, depending on their specific needs ( there's a lot of variables.)

I think you can assure yourself that only you can decide for yourself if it makes a difference in your system. So don't feel like you wasted money, because ...

a) No way to be sure until you try an external amp
b) There's far stupider wastes of money ( drugs, alcoholism, Yankees season tickets, Magic : The Gathering, etc (Just giving you Yanks fans a hard time, heh)
c) If you have the spare money and love audio why not?

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he'd notice a difference if he attempted to put anywhere near 200 watts to his surrounds, as they would cease to work relatively quickly...

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nope... watts are watts...

and why are you making the assumption that the emo makes "better/cleaner power" than the yammy?

If the receiver isn't clipping, you will not hear a difference with an amp. Especially not with 8 ohm and 91 db sensitivity speakers.

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sorry... but no... i too have extensive experience in car audio, and that 100 dollar 1000 watt amp doesn't make 1000 watts...

a watt is a watt...

there's a market for a lot of things that aren't needed... especially items that are promoted with a religious fervor by some...

some situations call for external amplification because they require "more watts" or "more robust power supply"...

in the real world, your system never experiences an all channels driven sine wave...

I don't expect that's a big problem. He's only going need a lot of power during very brief moments of time. And I don't think temporary overload is a common cause of failure...in my experience speakers die due to overheating, and surrounds are unlikely to overheat.

You should take Richard Clark's $10,000 amp challenge if you think you have golden ears and can hear a difference between two modern amps operating within their limits. You would be the first person in thousands of contestants to pass the test.


http://www.tom-morrow-land.com/tests/ampchall/index.htm

It's hard to pin down numbers. But let me try. Let's make some assumptions -
* Someone has average or low efficiency speakers, say 90 dB or less sensitivity
* Their room is not small
* They love loud music/movies
* Maybe their speakers are the kind that really tax amplifiers ( I still learning about how that works)

In this case, even a higher end $1000 receiver could come up short. I am not sure either way as I have no hard data. But it takes a lot of power to push speakers to over 100 dB. In loud scenes in movies, all speakers can be driven hard, based on my own experience.

Until we have a clipoing indicator on a receiver, I think we are guessing what it will actually do when fed a loud action scene in a movie. You have a power supply with typically a small cap bank. And limiter circuits to protect the thing from overload. And 7 speakers to drive. Even though bass is usually handled by a powered sub, I think that's a lot to handle. And it just may be some receivers wont' get it done, but in conjunction with some amps they will get it done.

I consider it an open question. Just my opinion, of course.

higher post count doesnt make you right

I'm currently utilizing some amps I had to supplement my AVR. No reason you shouldn't take some of the load off your receiver with what you've got. I don't know why you would necessarily need to power all 5 channels at once, the material most often will not in any case. I would load up the front five. Maybe even think about running some extras now that you've got more options. I use two older amps I had to supplement my avr on the front 3 channels (2 x 2channel amps), but think with my speakers and desire for louder listening levels it's the better way to go (but my AVR probably bench tests at 20% of the RMS rating of the amps)

His advice is pretty darn spot on. Where did he ever mention his post count as his credentials?

As for the op, if you already bought it and opened it just give it a shot lol. If you don't like it ill buy it . What volumes are you playing at? Room sz?

Nice non sequitur! Sorta goes with what Chris was saying, tho....