Emotiva XPA-1 monoblock impressions...

runnin, you seem to have a level head as opposed to projector. This a forum you want to be part of despite a couple of "vocal" members. We welcome all folks around here and can respect your desire to not get stomped on. It was not my intent to **** you off or take sides. Just some friendly advice. That's all, nothing more.

Gordon

Thanks Gordon, no disrespect taken. I appreciate your candor.

I look forward to being a contributing member of this forum as I believe ML's are incredible speakers

They are indeed, and the more equipment run through them, the more we all learn. Sometimes we have to take the good with the bad no matter how much it makes us angry.

Gordon

runnin17 said:

Gordon, I only named one specific thing in the post you are referring to. Projector took his time to hijack my thread and spout utter and complete biased BS. People are entitled to their opinions and that is fine, but I don't have to sit back and let someone attack me and the components I choose to spend my money on. You will never see me personally attacking an member unless I am provoked. If that is an issue then this is probably not a forum I want to be a part of. I am hoping that is not the case though.

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Take what you paid for & if you like it Fu#k everybody else, there are alot of green eared audio bragoto"s on some sites.....

runnin17...I do a lot of reading on this forum and very little posting...I agree with beek...if you like it great and posting your findings was of interest to me...if I can save a buck, I am all for reading the thread...when I look at the "What's New?", I decide what is worth reading based on my interests...if I disagree with what is written, I move on to another post...some on this forum use the emotivas, like them so more power to them and you...project, belittling helps no one and is not the spirit of this forum that I have found, at least in the hundreds of posts I have read...runnin, don't let it ruin your day and keep on posting

I read a lot of about that "laid back" sound that so many audiophiles really like. That is something that I like when the music is meant to be portrayed that way, but I was a music performance minor in college and thus I have a high respect for very accurate sound reproduction. Often times, music is not meant to come off as laid back. One way to describe it is the difference in listening to Beethoven and some B.B. King. Completely different styles of music and thus they are meant to sound and portray different emotions. While many amps and even pre-amps try there best to present a "laid back" profile I find that I enjoy the components that truly reproduce pitch perfect audio. If the audio setup can place me in a concert hall one minute and then when the track changes place me in the back of a blues club I am happy.

So far that is the experience I have had with the XPA-1's. They are far from perfect and their sound would likely be a slight second compared to McIntosh, Pass Labs, Classe or Krell; however, that doesn't really matter in the end. I enjoy these amps and at this point my upgraditis has been quenched for a very long time as far as I can tell. I can say this because even with the short amount of time I have had with the amps I have yet to find one thing that they completely fail at. Granted they could do specific things better, but at the price they are incredible. If this is "harsh" and "crappy" sound, then I guess in the distant future when I get a chance to actually try out some of that true audiophile grade amplification in my personal system I will be very pleasantly surprised.

P.S. My current dream amplification setup is a pair of McIntosh 601's or some of the Pass Labs XA series monoblocks. Until I have that money sitting around, the XPA-1's will fit my system very nicely

Glad to see we've moved into an area of understanding here in the 'sandbox'........'courteous disagreement' is fine..............to runnin17.....your money, your ears...that's all that matters ! enjoy your Logans !!

Flame thrower

Gordon

Glad you helped put out that fire.
But I think your systems stinks :rocker:
And will be over first AM with beers to start
Listening to it

Or maybe we ahould go to the projecters place?

Gordon said:

I have listened to a XPA-5 and found it to be a solid amp for HT. I didn't care for it in a 2 channel situation.

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Out of curiosity why don't you like the XPA-5 for 2 channel? I've been eying an XPA-5 for HT and 2 channel use.

I think this is a very valid comparison between the XPA series and UPA series. This is the type of data folks are looking for in their purchase designs, A vs B. I had considered Emotiva and read lots of good things about them in magazine reviews. I personally have no opinions as never heard them.

2nd of all, any review using ML gear is a plus....we can't rely on non-electrostat reviews as our product has slightly more esoteric requirements.

projectormovielover: Clearly you are passionate about your stance, but best to back it up with more than "the binding posts were subpar" which is a valid point in itself. However, if with bad binding posts, I can get 90% the sound for 50% the price, well...that's something to consider.

Runnin17 I responded to one of your threads on the Emo forum and I agree with you about the XPA-1's large mono blocks amps. I have owned Martin Logan SL3's since new in 1998 and loved them. I have used all kinds of amps over the last 22=23 years and thought they sounded good from the DQ10 Dahlquist speakers but when I received the ML SL3'S and 12-13 years later these EMO's things changed for the best.

The build is nice, well made, trip and finish is very nice. They make my ML's sing. They showed that it was time to get new panels. So after talking to several folks in CS at ML I found out many of them use EMO equiqment.

After some work on the panels and crossovers they are better than new. Stripped them, painted them and installed the new panels and the DRC on the crossover. Now I have a new set of speakers for less than a grand and the new amps make them sound better than ever.


Rich

:ttiwwp::band::ttiwwp:

I happen to found this thread while searching various tweaks for my future full range ESL's (no ML's however). Just wanted to say that I concur with other XPA-1 praise here, they are really good monoblocks. Balanced circuity, all-polypropylene cap signal path, thick trace PCBs, top notch measured performance, massive power supply with low ripple current and high current capability, fast transistors, these traits would make any amp sound at least good.

XPA-1s sounded better than a 4k$ hybrid integrated amp (that are usually mated with ESLs here) from highly respected Italian high end manufacturer with ML Vistas when we compared them at my friend's house, the choice was unanimous among 3 listeners. XPA-1s do some things differently than my other, over twice as expensive A-class monoblocks, but I would not say that neither of them is better than the other, they are just different. I'm happy to own them both. The most likeable traits of XPA-1 are, to my liking, the accurate but smooth top end and the certain musical vibe. XPA-1 let's music's musicality/feeling to pass through freely. I have heard too many cold, dry and uninvolving amps in my life and respecting the opposite attributes comes easily for me.

This is a good forum by the way, will be lurking also in the future.

Regards,

Hi Rich

I'm glad to see that you got your issue with the SL3s solved.

Now it's time for me to chime in about Emotiva. Financial circumstances have caused me to have to sell off my high end electonics and I was in a quandry about how to power my Summits until I can once again afford decent gear. After reading Jeff's (tonepub) review of the Emo USP1and dual UPA1 monoblocks in Tone Audio, I decided to give them a whirl. I won't go into the whole sad story, but I'll just quickly say that the sound of their gear isn't bad. That's not to say it's as good as the $12K worth of gear that it replaced, just that I don't feel too deprived, and it is very listenable. I would avoid their CDP with ML ESLs because it lacks sufficient resolution for an enjoyable experience.

However, all is not good. There were problems and I found that their CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED, and the integrity of their sales staff is questionable at best. Their VP of sales will SAY ANYTHING, even if it's not the truth...just to push equipment out the door. If it were my company I'd kick that guys butt right out the door with some of the defective gear they ship. In this economy there are a lot of good people available to have to put up with garbage.

At the end of the day, good equipment from a bad company is no better than bad equipment from a good company. Avoid it if you can!

DrJRapp said:

Hi Rich
However, all is not good. There were problems and I found that their CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED, and the integrity of their sales staff is questionable at best. Their VP of sales will SAY ANYTHING, even if it's not the truth...just to push equipment out the door. If it were my company I'd kick that guys butt right out the door with some of the defective gear they ship. In this economy there are a lot of good people available to have to put up with garbage.

At the end of the day, good equipment from a bad company is no better than bad equipment from a good company.

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Hi, I have had good responses and resolutions to my problems from the customer service even though I'm an international customer. However it sometimes takes 3 days to get an answer to an email (which tells something) but in the end everything has gone well. If I were in the US I would only call them, it would make things faster. I think they could/should use more staff, people are their hands full of orders and everything else. Growing pains are real and they should be dealt with. You can only lose a reputation once (and bad reputation is a PITA to get rid of), hopefully that is not the case with Emotiva.

Three days I wish. I sent Emails that were never answered, left phone messages that were never answered, then they shipped the WRONG PIECE of gear to replace the defective piece, then sent the 2d replacement (third unit) to the WRONG ADDRESS. Anyone or any company can screw up once , but to screw up the resolution of the screw up, then screw up the resolution of the screw up to the resolution of the screw up....then not to care that I was deeply upset and lost a lot of my time helping to solve their problems is indicative of far more than just being shorthanded.

It was not until I told my story on their forum and I had already had 80 or 90 comments did I get the proper attention out of the company. The owner stepped in at the 13th hour and promised to make things right. I don't know how that's possible, because you can compensate someone for lost money, but once time is lost it can never be regained again. At almost 65 I am acutely aware of that fact. I have very little free time and at my age I want that free time to be spent on pleasureable things, not on grief. Unfortunatly I lost a lot of my time resolving the issue, and it's not over yet.

Hi Jerry! I popped over there to find your thread. I had seen your screen name before but didn't put 2 and 2 together. KNowing the gear you had I didn't think I'd see you there. Now I know why. Anyway I hope things work out in your favor. I'm actually quite surprised you were not banned for your facts. I was banned for much less, perhaps because I hadn't spent any money yet!! Good luck Jerry.

Gordon

Hey Gordon...long time no see.

I probably wasn't banned because I speak the truth and told the facts just the way they happened. A lot of the Emo "fanboys" were very upset, and I was waiting to see if they tried to ban me, in which case I would have made a much bigger deal of this all over the internet. I believe that people have the right to know the facts, even if the facts are not flattering to the company. I have achieved "reviewer" status on many of the a/v sites out here on the web mostly because of my integrity and skills at unbiased evaluation. . The one thing I have that makes what I say more credible than the professionals is that I am not vieing for the company's ad dollars, so I have no need to be "politically correct". I don't think that gives me license to be irresponsible, however. I had originally written a different response to Rich, but after seeing it posted on the board I though it could be misconstrued by someone as "flaming" Emotiva, so I deleted it and wrote something less detailed. The facts of this case are ugly enough.

Also took a look at the thread. I am sure Emotiva will make things as right as they can at this point. I completely agree that their products are not the end all be all of audiophile gear. Many, many things sound better; however, good luck approaching that level of sound with components even twice the price of Emo gear. Still waiting on new IC's and speaker cables before I actually do a proper review of the XPA-1's

P.S. I will also add some pics. Just moved into a new house and haven't had a chance to get proper pics of the whole setup yet.

Yes, do get decent ICs. When I first setup the gear I hooked it up from preamp to each amp with Audioquest King Cobras figuring, for this level of equipment that was good enough. As soon as 20 or 30 hours went by and I realized that he gear may be MUCH better than the pricing would indicate, I switched out the cables for my Synergistic Research Resolution Reference Active ICs.....That's when I was fully able to appreciate how good the Amps really are at resolving detail. To some it may seem rediculous to hook up a $400 preamp to two $350 monopblock amps with $1000 ICs but it did make quite a difference...besides the fact I had nothing in between the Audioquest and the Synergistics that I could use.

I'm not sure myself what can make things right at this stage, but whatever they do it needs to be intellegent, not just the chump change towards future gear that they offered.