Vista Help Please

[Robert K]

All,

I am a few weeks away from recieving my new Vistas, Motif and Depth i. This will be part of a 7.1 home theater setup, and I'm going to be using a Yamaha RX-V3800 as the pre-amp/processor and I'm pretty sure I'm going to add an additional amplifier. I'm leaning, based upon hearing a friends system, towards ordering an Emotiva XPA-5. My thought is that I'd use the Yamaha to drive the 4 surrounds and the Emotiva to drive the Vistas and the Motif.

The Emotiva is rated at 200wpc at 8 ohms, 350wpc at 4 ohms. Based upon hearing how power hungry the MLs are, my thought was to have the XPA-5 and bi-amp the Vistas. I have two sets of speaker wires in place for each Vista.

I have two questions, though. First, is the XPA-5, with its ratings, too much power - will it kill the Vistas or the Motif, especially if I dedicate channels 1 and 2 to my first Vista, channels 3 and 4 to my second, and channel 5 to the Motif?

Second, I've downloaded the Vista manual, and it gives two options, Vertical and Horizontal passive bi-amplification. I have no idea which one is the best way, never having done anything like this before. Any advice?

As an aside, one of the reasons I ended up going with the MLs was because of this forum. I got some very, very useful info the last time I asked questions here that guided me in the right direction (I believe). Much better than other sites/manufacturer forums!

Thanks in advance,

Bob

 

[Burke]

I have two questions, though. First, is the XPA-5, with its ratings, too much power - will it kill the Vistas or the Motif, especially if I dedicate channels 1 and 2 to my first Vista, channels 3 and 4 to my second, and channel 5 to the Motif?

The 200wpc will not kill the Vistas or Motif. Before bi-amping I would try running the Vista with a single channel amp. More important than quantity of watts is quality of watts. In my case there is not a big difference between my Sanders ESL amp (325 wpc) and the Sanders mono-blocks (600-700wpc). on either my Summits or Cherian's Monoliths. If you want to hear the Sanders before you order the Emotiva, just east of you in Wheaton.

Welcome to the club and be sure to keep an eye on the Regional get togethers, The Chicago gang is fairly active.

--burke

 

[Rich]

First, is the XPA-5, with its ratings, too much power - will it kill the Vistas or the Motif, especially if I dedicate channels 1 and 2 to my first Vista, channels 3 and 4 to my second, and channel 5 to the Motif?

Nope. Not a problem. They will appreciate the headroom and you will be less likely to drive the amp to clipping.

Second, I've downloaded the Vista manual, and it gives two options, Vertical and Horizontal passive bi-amplification. I have no idea which one is the best way, never having done anything like this before. Any advice?

I don't see how these distinctions matter in your situation, since you are planning on using a single five-channel amp to power your front three speakers. Vertical vs. horizontal biamping refers to different ways of using two separate stereo (two-channel) amps to bi-amp a pair of speakers with.

Basically, in your case, one amp output channel will go to the esl inputs of the left speaker, the next amp output channel will go to the woofer input of the left speaker, the next amp output channel will go to the esl inputs of the right speaker, and the next amp output channel will go to the woofer inputs of the right speaker. The final channel will go to the inputs for your center channel speaker (Motif).

 

[JasonR]

Your Vistas won't mind being bi-amped. As Rich said, headroom is a good thing.

The XPA-5 is pretty much a brand new model. Personally I'd probably wait for some reviews to make it to press, or some opinions of folks I trust, but you can always demo it in-home and see what you think. The XPA-5 doesn't look to be quite up to MPS- amps, but then it's also not quite so expensive either. If you're thinking of going with Emotiva, check out Outlaw Audio as well. They both have some big fans and with good reason. I run an Outlaw 7500 amp (5.1) with Vistas fronts, Cinema center and Vignettes in the rear, and couldn't be happier.

- Jason