[Landmonster]

So I will be in the market very soon for a high powered 3-channel amp. This would be used to power a Polk LSiM front stage, which is notoriously hard to drive to full potential.


I would really like 250+ watts per channel, but even 300+ would be fine, and not damaging to the speakers.



Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of the new Emotiva XPA-DR3 (or DR2)? Here is a link: https://emotiva.com/products/xpa-dr3


It looks like a substantially beefier version of the XPA-3 gen3. It provides 450 watts RMS x 3 channels, into 8 Ohms, and supposedly had better quality sound.


According to Emotiva reps, the DR series is the best quality amps they are capable of making. Emotiva has stated that a DR series amp powering the front 2 or 3 channels, along with an XPA-5 powering the rest of your speakers, is the most stellar solution that they can provide from their products.





Questions

• Has anyone used one of these DR amps in person?
• Does this provide noticeably superior sound to the XPA-3?
• How would this amp compare to other branded competitors in ~$2000 price range? (Parasound, Outlaw, Monolith, ATI, etc)
• Is there anything in this $2,000 range that would obviously be a better performer?

Thanks for any thoughts or input on this.

 

[bear123]

Only thing similar as far as power goes would be D-Sonic. Their lowest powered offering is 400w/ch and they go up much higher than that.

As far as sound quality, I think its just a matter of having plenty of power...at normal listening levels it should sound the same as the amp just amplifies a signal. If you don't have enough power, more may help if the speakers can actually handle it. Keep in mind however, that more sensivite speakers can be an effective approach as well. Adding 10 dB of sensitivity would require 10x as much power to match, and speakers will only handle so much power before substantial distortion and compression set in. Doubling power only gains 3 dB and quadrupling adds 6 dB, again, only if the speakers handle every drop of that power without distorting and compressing, so actual gains will likely be much lower.