Ascent i volume issue

[mapmustang]

I finally have my media room set up in my new house with the Logans. It is a pretty good size room at 12'Wx26'Lx10' ceilings. I am driving the Ascent i's with a pair of Emotiva XPA-1 500 watt monoblocks and an XPA-5 200 watt amp driving the theater I and frescos. The processor is an Emotiva UMC-1 and bluray is the OPPO 105 hooked up via 5.1 analog outs. I had previously tried running the analog outs on the Oppo straight to the amps, but everything sounds better when run through the preamp.

The last few movies I have watched have pushed the XPA-1 amps into clipping territory a couple times in the film during flashes of high volume. I'm not listening at deafening levels, but a good healthy volume (my guests actually wanted it a little louder, especially in the quiet scenes).

The 2 XPA-1s sit at the front of the room next to the Ascents with the preamp at the back of the room. To do this, I ran 50' XLR cables from the preamp through the attic and down to the amps.

I would think the XPA-1s would still have plenty of power to drive the Ascents to a satisfactory volume. Have any of you guys found the best way to boost signal strength in a situation like this to get the desired volume without clipping? Would it be best just to increase the speaker levels a little bit across the board on the processor? Right now the Ascents are at 0 dB and Theater is at -2dB and Fresco at -5dB.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Tosh]

I'm surprised if you are actually clipping a 500W/8Ohm amp driving the nominally 4 Ohm Ascenti! I would be worried about the woofer bottoming and destroying itself, as it only has an Xmax in the 7-8mm range...

 

[Mogrub]

Like you Mustang, I'm surprised you're clipping. Is it possible to move your XPA-1's so they are quite close to your preamp, connecting them with very short runs, and then running speaker wire to the Ascents, and duplicating the listening levels on those same movies to see if you get the same results?

And what gauge speaker wire are you using? I'm wondering if somehow you're losing something along your runs.

None of this may help, just tossing ideas out.

Cheers.

 

[OldMonolith]

I don't see 50ft balanced as a problem. Unbalanced wouldn't be a good idea though. It'd tend to cause high frequency roll off of unbalanced audio at that length, very wire dependant.

As far as level to the amp, raising the output at the preamp will just enable clipping quicker with the gain set a bit lower. That doesn't get you anywhere.

The speaker wire though, might have a bit of effect.

But unless there is something else not seen here, I'd say the amp doesn't have the guts to do the job. You could look at the dynamic compression setting in the Oppo and set it to enabled, as that might help your situation for now.

OldMonolith

 

[mapmustang]

The speaker cables I'm using are Monster M2.2s in 8 foot length. When I bought them, I think it was the second nicest cable they made, only behind the biwires.

I sent the electronics portion of both Ascents in for service a few weeks ago after I plugged a cable back in when the amp was on and popped something in the electronics of that speaker, so both should be functioning normally in that regard.

 

[Mogrub]

That's a wrinkle. Are you certain the "clipping" is unrelated to your recent damage and repair?

 

[Bernard]

Considering that ML recommends 20-200 watts to drive their speakers, 500 watts should be plenty. I suggest that you try another speaker, and if you have the same problem, get the Emotivas checked out.

 

[Mogrub]

Mustang, fault isolation seems the next step? Not too hard, and way easier (and cheaper) than other options.