EMOTIVA Thread Q&A [TECHNICAL TALK ONLY] - Page 384

It's official, I am a proud owner of an Emotiva XPA-3....! Hooking it up now....can't wait!

Pairing it with my Pio SC-07 AVR.

Let us know what you think when you get finished with the install and get a chance to do some listening.

Well the defective UPA-2 made it back to Emotiva and due to some conflicts with their customer service I cancelled my order and requested a refund. Ordered an Outlaw amp today so I will see how that goes.

What happened with customer service?

I am curious too. Emo sent me a replacement amp immediately for my DOA XPA-3. I had no reason to complain.

1st thing they wanted me to pay shipping to return a new defective amp. Next they wanted me to wait for repairs on the defective amp in lieu of shipping a new one. At this point I decided I would rather have a different model (more expensive) but they said my only options were now accept a new UPA-2 or a refund. Each step in this process seemed to take a day or more and I finally got fed up and asked for the refund.

Weird...they did not charge me shipping, and did not suggest a repair. Could be on a case by case basis I guess for the repair. But I would think they would not charge you shipping...they emailed me a label I think.

Maybe money is tight, and they are changing their policies...which would be unfortunate I guess.

They did do that after I complained but it was another day gone by before they emailed the label.

Wow...well...I guess I am more lovable. But I am sorry to hear their customer service was not as good for you as me. Good to know.

You obviously are. I'm just an old (71) cantankerous fart.

Well anyone 71 year of age buying a new dedicated amp can be anything they want in my book.

I have 8 emotiva products including two amps and have been very happy so sorry you had troubles.

I hope I am still into the hobby when I get to 71.

Maybe the bottom line would be healthier if they released the new products they said they would.

The better way of protecting the bottom line is to give customers fantastic support, not to give them rubbish support.

I suspect there may be more behind the story than meets the eye. I hope so anyway - my experiences with Emo have been terrific. This is the company that gave me an immediate refund of $420 because I ordered 18 days before their sale started. No haggling, no problems - an immediate offer of a refund of $420. They have built a major part of their reputation on customer service and I can't see them throwing it away in some misguided attempt to squeeze a few more bucks out of their bottom line.

Kind Regards,

Keith

I didn't even ask for a refund and they credited my cc.

It's customer focus like that which is essential for ID companies, whose reputation is spread in places like these forums. SVS is another company that has the same standards of customer focus. It's significant that my last three major purchases of AV gear have all been from Emotive and SVS. I think the poster who had a problem was the exception rather than the rule - if an ID company starts to get a bad rep on the net, they're finished. I've found it easier to deal with Emotiva than with companies 30 miles down the road here in England (the land of rubbish service).

Kind Regards,

Keith

I do think Emotiva has at least one bad customer service worker. When I had some issues one particular male worker I dealt with was not following their company policies. I'm sorry to say this was their head of sales. I had to step over him in order to get anything done. Then everything went smoothly and by company policy plus more. In total I own 3 Emotiva amplifiers and have spent a considerable amount of money with the company since the amplifiers I own happen to be some of the most expensive amplifiers that they make. Unfortunately every company can have a worker that is unpleasant to deal with. Including Emotiva.

Me as well: 5 Emotiva amps and 6 SVS subs.

I hope they realised and have sacked him. It only takes one bad apple.

Kind Regards,

Keith

Me to. When I explained what had happened to several other people in the company they also said that what I had been told was not company policy and they wanted to make things right and they did. That's why I will consider being a returning customer later on. If things would of not turned around I probably would of wrote them off and put them on my list of companies not to do business with.

Yeah,

that sounds like the old bad apple story though...
So far, there are 3 ID companies that I really feel pleasure to deal with:

Oppo, SVS & Emo

+1

I have an onkyo 3007 powerin a pair of rtia9's. I was thinking of buying the xpa3 or xpa 2. But my deliema is that I have the onkyo in btl mode for the front speakers and according to onkyo, the 3007 puts oput about 200 watts per channel to channels driven in btl mode. So is it a waste of money to buy an emotiva xpa2 or xpa 3 seeing how much the onkyo is putting out in btl mode? Thaks for any help in advance

The main limitation of an AVR is its power supply. The power supply has to provide sufficient current for all of the channels it is powering - this is why the makers quote the power into 2 channels, at 6 ohms. You will be using 8 ohm speakers if you are bridging so your real power output will be less than the makers claim anyway. But the point is, you have one power supply and if it is delivering current to produce 200 watts into two channels, it is robbing the other channels to pay for it. There is a finite amount of current regardless of how you deploy it.

FWIW, I would suggest an XPA-3 would give you a better result. For one thing, the XPA-3 delivers its rated power (200 watts into 8ohms) into all its channels when continously driven. The AVR can in no way claim that (and they don't). If you used an XPA-3 to power the LCR channels, you could then liberate the amps in the Onlyo to power your surrounds and Heights or Wides if you have them. This will enable the Onkyo to deliver substantial power to those channels and you will have the genuine 200 watts x 3 for the LCR. The centre channel is the most demanding for movies as 70% to 80% of all a movie's sound content is handled by the centre channel. Bridging the L&R doesn't help you at all with that - in fact it probably hinders you because the power supply is working so hard now to feed the L&R channels. The XPA-3 will give you more power than you are likely to need across all three front channels which is, IMO, a better result for you.

Kind Regards,

Keith

Those are reasonably efficient (90 dB sens) 8 ohm speakers which should be easily driven by your AVR. I had basically similar Polk RT800i towers and they sounded great with a Denon 2809 AVR in an all-Polk, all 8 ohm 5.1 (all speakers set to small, xover=80) system.

The answers to these questions will help us determine whether you are likely to hear any difference with an ext amp:
1. Do you hear any reduction in SQ when you turn it up to the loudest you listen?
2. Are you running a sub, and if so are the fronts set to small, and with what xover?
3. What other speakers are connected to the Onkyo?
4. How far away do you sit and how loud do you like it?

To answer your questions
1. There isnt really and soq reduction when I turn up the sound.
2. I have a very nice hus vtf ho sub that i use,but I was looking to go two channel only for music listening, and leave the sub out tof the mix. I really love music everything from hip hop to "some" country.
3. I have other than the rti a9's a paradigm cc 390 center and a pair of old montior audio fx silver dipole speakers for side surrounds
4.I sit about 7 to 8 feet away.

^^^

1) then you don't require additional amplification (and i'd turn btl mode off too)...

2) nice sub. why are you attempting to remove it from music? let your subwoofer do what it does best, and the main speakers do what they do best.

3) ain't nothing wrong with those speakers...

4) reasonable distance... reinforces point 1...

^^ robert, I agree with cco, I think you're in good shape. If currently, when you run the fronts full band (large) and leave out the sub for stereo, it sounds clean, dynamic and powerful with solid deep but tight & punchy bass I doubt an ext amp would make any audible difference. It appears that your good SQ with 2 ch is explained by
1. having all the AVR's power amp resources available to power
2. fairly efficient speakers
3. at a close distance from MLP.

I found MultEQXT (as in your AVR) smooths the bass considerably. I have no bass traps as yet. Also, putting my Velo DD10 sub in the smoothest bass position I could find (using a version of the sub crawl method) up near the FR/L towers helped keep the bass well-localized. I lower the xover to 60 for critical 2 ch listening (Denon has separate settings for stereo mode).

i am officialy a proud owner of three Emotiva amps! got 2x XPA-5's and 1x XPA-3.. i have to tell you that the packaging is amazing, each amp is double boxed with bulky foam pieces inside to even protect them more, the manual is simple and neat, the included power chord looks really good for a free power chord. they are built like a tank, nearly broke my back lifting them. just connected them to test it a bit, but didn't connect any speakers yet!