[rick1969]

I'm looking at the emotiva XPA-3 but would like to look at other options as well. What other three channel amps are out there that won't break the bank. If there is something significantly better than the emotiva then I don't mind going over that $700 price tag, but I'm not going to drop thousands either.


I'm currently using the denon 2807 and plan on using the three channel to power LCR and leave the denon for the surrounds (4 channels)


Thanks

 

[mcallister]

If you can find a used Earthquake Cinenova I'd consider that. Great amp, great sound, huge power.

 

[jdsmoothie]

Unless you're trying to drive 4Ω speakers or are in a large room with high volume usage, you may not notice any real difference with the external amp, although Emotiva does have a 30 day return policy.

 

[rick1969]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jdsmoothie /forum/post/0


Unless you're trying to drive 4? speakers or are in a large room with high volume usage, you may not notice any real difference with the external amp, although Emotiva does have a 30 day return policy.

You make it difficult for a person with upgrade-itis to do anything. I guess I'll just start with the wall treatments from GIK and see what I think after that. Thanks for the honest feedback.


By the way, the speakers I'm currently using are HTD level 3 speakers so no, they aren't 4 ohm speakers.

 

[Audiodork]

Hello,

If you could find an Aragon 8008x3, I would jump on it. However, it is pretty unlikely as they are quite rare and even the 2 Channel 8008's usually sell about as soon as they are listed on Audiogon. Just great Amplifiers.

Cheers,

AD

 

[skally]

Hello Rick, I'm not sure if this will help out all that much as I cant compare "apples to apples" but only "apples to oranges"... I'll expalin

. A ways back last December a friend and I had the same idea to where we had tried the external amp to his system. He has a Yamaha 867 receiver and at the time had Polk towers ( monitor 60's I think?). He/we added a Pyle external amp he borrowed from a friend that had 150w per channel ( if I remember right) but it was a 2 channel not 3. Anyhow, it did make a "little" differance but only at high levels... meaning to almost the point of being to loud to watch movies. There was no differnace at lower levels or at least at resonable listing area's as far as we could tell to our ears.


So "hence" the apples to oranges concept... not the same set up as the Pyle is a lower dollar unit not to mention a 2ch but I do belive its somewhat close to your situation. He sold his Polk towers and got the Bic Ac Pl-89's and Pl-28 center channel as now he loves it. Nice and clean, not "muddy" as the Polk he had, so the dialog suits him just fine now.


I'm not saying to get new speakers as I'm sure the HTD are just fine, I just thought I would give you the experinace that I came across to where the amp made no differnace except at higher levels is all.


Good luck and hope it all works out!

 

[rick1969]



Quote:
Originally Posted by skally /forum/post/20820915


Hello Rick, I'm not sure if this will help out all that much as I cant compare "apples to apples" but only "apples to oranges"... I'll expalin

. A ways back last December a friend and I had the same idea to where we had tried the external amp to his system. He has a Yamaha 867 receiver and at the time had Polk towers ( monitor 60's I think?). He/we added a Pyle external amp he borrowed from a friend that had 150w per channel ( if I remember right) but it was a 2 channel not 3. Anyhow, it did make a "little" differance but only at high levels... meaning to almost the point of being to loud to watch movies. There was no differnace at lower levels or at least at resonable listing area's as far as we could tell to our ears.


So "hence" the apples to oranges concept... not the same set up as the Pyle is a lower dollar unit not to mention a 2ch but I do belive its somewhat close to your situation. He sold his Polk towers and got the Bic Ac Pl-89's and Pl-28 center channel as now he loves it. Nice and clean, not "muddy" as the Polk he had, so the dialog suits him just fine now.


I'm not saying to get new speakers as I'm sure the HTD are just fine, I just thought I would give you the experinace that I came across to where the amp made no differnace except at higher levels is all.


Good luck and hope it all works out!

Thanks! My initial quest was to upgrade the speakers, but someone in a different thread recommended keeping the speakers and upgrading the amp...hence this thread. Regardless, I need wall treatments since I have none. I'll start there, do another sound test and then determine if speakers are my next upgrade or the addition of the amp.


Rick

 

[jsil]

Not to hijack this thread. I'm also looking at a 3 channel amp. I'm using a pioneer vsx 1120 to drive a 7.1 NHT speakers with a sensitivity of 86db. My family room is 15x17x9 and opens to my kitchen. So do you guys think a 3 channel amp will help or the Pioneer is all I need.

 

[jdsmoothie]

Post #3 applies in your case as well.

 

[glennQNYC]

Anthem MCA-30 is a great option...

 

[jsil]

I'm confused because when I read reviews they always say how good the amp is at "improving upon in both low-volume listening and high-volume listening". Then you get this "as revealing and clean, with a slightly softer mid-range presentation" this is from one reviewer. Yet another review "noticeable increase in imaging, and a more coherent sound stage, particularly with multi-channel music recordings" and others say different things. So are these guys just full of BS or am I just not seeing it.

 

[MichaelJHuman]

If you ask me, people imagine a lot of things when it comes to audio. Maybe amps can sound different, but they typically measure very well when put on the test bench.


One thing IS clear and provable. If you run out of power, the amplifier will clip (the peaks of the signal are lopped off, because the amp simply can't push out a higher voltage.) And it it's clipping, it's distorting. And maybe audibly distorting. At that point more power will clearly help. The downside is that it takes twice the power for each 3 dB gain in SPL. It starts getting expensive (and there's upper limiits to continuous power from a wall outlet.)

 

[monsteraudio]

I had a nice proceed 3 channel, should have kept up

 

[jsil]

So when you bring it home those bench tests don't mean much is that correct.

 

[MichaelJHuman]

Nothing wrong with bench tests. They are mostly objective. Subjective reviews are not evil, they are just...you know...subjective. Read them with that concept in mind.

 

[dynamiteroll]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jsil /forum/post/20825879


Not to hijack this thread. I'm also looking at a 3 channel amp. I'm using a pioneer vsx 1120 to drive a 7.1 NHT speakers with a sensitivity of 86db. My family room is 15x17x9 and opens to my kitchen. So do you guys think a 3 channel amp will help or the Pioneer is all I need.

I have a pretty similar setup with a large family room opening up to a kitchen...and an 1120-K. Because my speakers are 4ohm, I went with a BK 5 channel. Probably would have done the same if the speakers were 6 or 8 ohm as an outboard amp helps with controlling heat build-up within the receiver. Should be better for reliability and longevity.


And frankly, it's awesome when I crank the #@#$ out of Metallica Live in Sofia Bulgaria.