Powering Vista with Denon 4306 or XPA-1

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cloo24

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Hello fellow MLOers,

I have the ML Vista and am currently powering them with a Denon 4306. I have come across an opportunity on craigslist to get 2 of the XPA-1s by Emotiva for 1500 dollars. I generally use my speakers for streaming spotify and watching movies.

I'm wondering if there is significant upside to purchasing the XPA-1s and using the pre-outs of the Denon 4306. The Denon has never gone into safety mode or anything like that but it does get pretty warm. I had tried this previously with the Hafler DH200 but didn't notice a difference. I was thinking that the newer technology that has come out would make a difference.

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Hello fellow MLOers,

I have the ML Vista and am currently powering them with a Denon 4306. I have come across an opportunity on craigslist to get 2 of the XPA-1s by Emotiva for 1500 dollars. I generally use my speakers for streaming spotify and watching movies.

I'm wondering if there is significant upside to purchasing the XPA-1s and using the pre-outs of the Denon 4306. The Denon has never gone into safety mode or anything like that but it does get pretty warm. I had tried this previously with the Hafler DH200 but didn't notice a difference. I was thinking that the newer technology that has come out would make a difference.

Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,


I don't think that there have been any major improvements in class A/B amps like the XPA-1 in recent history. They are pretty low tech devices and the science has been figured out for a long time now.

There have been advances in class D amps which are higher tech and are still evolving although many people still prefer class A / class A/B amps.

Your Denon may be working hard to push lower impedances, but if you are happy with the sound I wouldn't worry about it. The XPA-1s won't have any problems driving low impedances, but they will still get warm and they each weight about 70lbs. The main issue would be whether the preamp of your Denon had an output impedance that matched the XPA-1's input impedance.

FWIW, I'm very happy with the sound from my XPA-2 Gen2 powering my Ethos speakers and it is based on a similar design to the XPA-1's.
 
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Try to listen to many different amps. The correct amplification with MLs is magic - get it wrong and it is detrimental.

If you are driving them with a receiver, you'll certainly get benefits from going with a proper amplifier - which one only you can decide.
 
Powering them with external power amplification, you should see major improvements over your Denon AVR. Use the Denon as a preamp, like you said and you'll have a cool system with lots of headroom.
 
Thanks for everyone taking the time to reply. I have officially purchased the XPA-2 by Emotiva and the USP-1. The amp has made the sound seem to fill the room much more and also boosted the bass significantly! Unfortunately, I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilize the pre amp without much success.

I tend to stream most of my music via spotify and a chromcast. The pre amp doesn't have any digital inputs and my TV's analog output is not working at the moment. I'll have to do some debugging and see what I can come up with. Overall I'm very happy and appreciate everyone's thoughts.
 
Why not use the Denon as a digital source for the time being until the next upgrade? Congrats on the Emotiva combo, by the way.
 
That's what I'm doing currently. I'm not sure what to do wth the usp-1 at this point because I don't listen to cds. Would I hook up the preamp of the demon to the usp-1? It doesn't seem to make sense to do that. Any input would be greatly appreciated
 
Use your Denon as a 'DAC/processor' for digital source. Use the preamp out from Denon and connect to HT input of the preamp. This way, you have all the pieces ready for multi-channel (or surround sound) set-up in the future. The Denon is more than capable to drive the center and surround speakers in a multi-channel setup. In your current situation, the preamp does seem to be out-of-place, but it'll make sense when you upgrade in the future. For example, replacing the Denon with a better streamer/DAC, CD player. Or 'upgrading' to a ... turntable.
 
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