New Bargain Martin Logan Theos in the House

[FertilityDoc]

All,

Sorry to have delayed posting an update. I am currently sitting in a bar in Galway as I write this on summer vacation. The Galway races are taking are here and I have never seen such a wild scene! i did go ahead and pulled the trigger on a pair of Emotiva XPA-1's. I am very pleased with the purchase. Value is a big issue for me. With the Emotiva a summer sale, it was a no brainer. I know Emotivas are very controversial here. What have I found so far? First, the Emotivas seemed bright when I first set them up and I questioned the decision. The musicality was noted to be very source dependent. You feed them a lousy recording and you get
lousy music in return. What I have found is that a very careful Audyssey calibration following the microphone placement with a tripod is mandatory. As 2 weeks passed and the calibration was done explicitly according to the extensive Audyssey threads, the Emotivas were tamed. I find the sound to be quite neutral and I have headroom galore. . I know the strong feelings of many but I love the combination of the the Theos and the Emotiva. This is by no means a head to head comparison but I feel with the Emotivas I am 95% of the way where I hoped to be. It is Ireland and I have to be social as I sip my Jameson's. I'll write a more extensive review in a couple of weeks. Cheers all.

 

[danvu]

All,
As 2 weeks passed and the calibration was done explicitly according to the extensive Audyssey threads, the Emotivas were tamed. I find the sound to be quite neutral and I have headroom galore. . I know the strong feelings of many but I love the combination of the the Theos and the Emotiva. This is by no means a head to head comparison but I feel with the Emotivas I am 95% of the way where I hoped to be. It is Ireland and I have to be social as I sip my Jameson's. I'll write a more extensive review in a couple of weeks. Cheers all.

Nice to hear from you (on your vacation), Doc . Glad that you like the Emos and could be able to tame them with your Denon's calibration. Hey, nothing matters as long as you're happy with the sound in your system and your own room.

So now I have another person to confirm that the XPA-1 is actually on the bright side and it requires room calibration to tame it. It probably works great for you because you use your receiver as pre/pro and to adjust the eq (in other words, alter the sound). For many people here including me, who have separate stereo systems or stereo preamps that dont have that feature (and also because we want the sound going thru the preamp not to be altered), the XPA-1 would probably be bright. This is also from my personal experience with my UPA-1's. After I moved them down to the home theater and connected them to my Onkyo 906 to drive the left and right channels, with the system calibrated, they sounded sweeter and smoother there than they did in my stereo set up.

Again, congrats on the purchase and finding the amps that fit your needs and taste . Enjoy!

 

[ktchnman]

Hi Doc. I don't knowif you've found your Amp as yet, but let me contribute my 2 cents worth. I'm using the new Cary 200.2 solid state Amp with my Theos, and it's lovely. I think the Cary Amp needs a lot more break-in time than folks are giving it, as I'm seeing a few crop up on Audiogon for a little over 2K. The amp is a good buy at it's 4K list price, IMO. Also, don't scrimp on using quality interconnects and speaker cables. The rest of my set up is all tube gear. Good luck in your quest.

 

[edwinr]

Doc, I saw that you were commenting on the 'brightness' of the Theos. I noted that some posters made reference to your room which may be contributing to this brightness. This may be true, but what about your music source? Are you listening only to mp3 via the Denon airplay? If you are evaluating the perceived brightness of the Theos using just these sources, I suggest mp3 sourced music may also contribute to a brighter or harsher sound. So to, would an inferior DAC.

I have nothing at all against using digital sources, but it should be done with as much consideration and care as we would with the rest of our system. Personally, I like using Apple Lossless. It beats the heck out of mp3 with a smoother, more analogue presentation.

I own a Denon 3313 receiver. It's very good for a mid-priced receiver and it's much better than the NAD receivers I tried before. While the Denon drives my Theos very well, it sounds a little 'glassy' or hard when compared to dedicated 2 channel amplifiers. There's not a lot in it at lower listening levels, but when listening at louder levels, the Denon shows it's limitations. If you combine the Denon's limitations with an mp3 source, there's the recipe for the brightness and fatigue that you describe.

Regarding your search for a suitable 2 channel power amplifier, consider the classic Classe power amplifiers. I'm a fan of the 'DR' series. You can buy these for not too much money. I reckon the Denon's pre-amplifier section will suffice to drive the Classe, while you utilize the Denon to drive the center and rear speakers.