WARNING
The following contains subject matter that may be extremely offensive to close minded individuals. Please click HERE to follow the Lemmings off the cliff if this applies to you.
Please no car analogies. This is a car analogy free zone. Anyone posting one will be promptly hunted down and gutted like a fish.
My processor is a Classe SSP-300, amplifier is a Classe cav-180 and some B&W 802D’s. I have owned a denon 2807 than went to separates with a SSP-300, mc-402 and a cav-18. But surround sound wasn’t in the cards for me and I found myself enjoying stereo more and more. Long story short as much as I loved the McIntosh I could not eliminate some line noise so it had to go. With the cav-180 the bass was almost twice that of the McIntosh but the sonic sweet warmth and detail of mid-range and highs were no where to be found. It was like the difference when I went from my Denon to the SSP-300 but in reverse. So the search goes on for the upper end of the McIntosh and the bottom end of the Classe.
I have noticed some very favorable comments about Emotiva products so I decided to give the XPA-1 a try. After you hook it up and power them up your first Impression should be not to have a first Impression. Out of the box they are bright, flat and grainy. These babies need at least 100 hours and as many heat cycles that time allows. Around the 60 hour mark they start coming into their own. I found myself in a love hate thing the first few days reminiscent of some past relationships. The detail and bass was outstanding but so was the high end graininess lack of a sound stage and imaging.
Than The warmth and sound stage starts to appear while the flat and grainy aspects slowly disappear. Cymbals shimmer, piano’s sound like they are in the room; bass is tight and on a good recording you can hear the sound of a finger or pick before the tone on a guitar. Voices are well defined, magical and easy on the ears. The bright presentation seemed to mellow into a warm detailed top end with accurate and powerful bass. I was starting to have a romance with these amplifiers but was it a true romance or was I just getting used to the sound.
It was time to hook up the cav-180 and make a comparison. I used a Kenny G recording from HDnet. I believe it’s his latest DVD recorded in San Diego. What happened next was unexpected! The sound was so similar that it caught me totally off guard. The distinction was more detail in the XPA-1. The piano, Cymbals, chimes and Bongos all came alive with the XPA-1. There was one point where the drummer ran the chimes back and forth on camera. With the Classe this was very faint and if you didn’t see it on the screen you may have missed it. Not so with the XPA-1, it was there but placed just right in the scheme of things and you didn’t have to see it on the screen to know it was taking place. The soundstage sounded so similar I couldn’t point out any noticeable differences. I don’t know what I was expecting but the last thing was for an amplifier at this price point to hold it’s own with the likes of a Classe.
One word on heat and a couple words on appearance. The word on heat is forge-abou-it. I’m fortunate in that I have a basement and built a shelf hanging from the rafters so I don’t have to look at amplifiers. I put the XPA-1’s on the carpet in front of the TV and didn’t notice that they sunk in and the bottom was closed off until day 3. Absolutely no problem with heat or performance and I was pushing them pretty hard. I have no use for the LED light and meters on the front panel. The LED light for the signal-in happily continues to blink without any input connected to the amplifier. Do yourself a favor and just flip the switches off for both on the back panel right after you remove them from the box. The back-lit power button is the highlight with a nice blue tone when on and amber in standby mode.
The XPA-1 may fall into the bright category for some people but I would consider it warm and detailed. That said, one persons bright is another person’s Holy Grail. It’s all about personal preferences and what’s right for you. The one thing I do know for sure is that the XPA-1 is the holy grail of value and I guarantee you will never ever have the diminishing returns conversation about this amplifier. It still amazes me how similar it was to the Classe.
The XPA-1 can be as good as what you put in front and behind it I believe. It will expose a poor quality recording with little remorse. I kept on thinking about what Glenee said about this amplifier.
The SSP-300 seems to be a good match for it as are the 802D’s. I can see where this amplifier might chew up and spit out some equipment the same way it does poor recordings. This was called the $200 experiment because Emotiva charges $25 each to ship them and I figured I could send them back for $75 each so I would be out $200 when returning them. After all who was I kidding that an amplifier at this price point would meet my needs? Next on deck was going to be a Pass labs X-350 but that plan is now on hold because these XPA-1’s have found a new home. They should be happier moving to the basement where they will have their own dedicated power lines. If you’re in the market for an amplifier of any caliber why not try your own $200 experiment. You just might be as impressed as I was.
The following contains subject matter that may be extremely offensive to close minded individuals. Please click HERE to follow the Lemmings off the cliff if this applies to you.
Please no car analogies. This is a car analogy free zone. Anyone posting one will be promptly hunted down and gutted like a fish.
My processor is a Classe SSP-300, amplifier is a Classe cav-180 and some B&W 802D’s. I have owned a denon 2807 than went to separates with a SSP-300, mc-402 and a cav-18. But surround sound wasn’t in the cards for me and I found myself enjoying stereo more and more. Long story short as much as I loved the McIntosh I could not eliminate some line noise so it had to go. With the cav-180 the bass was almost twice that of the McIntosh but the sonic sweet warmth and detail of mid-range and highs were no where to be found. It was like the difference when I went from my Denon to the SSP-300 but in reverse. So the search goes on for the upper end of the McIntosh and the bottom end of the Classe.
I have noticed some very favorable comments about Emotiva products so I decided to give the XPA-1 a try. After you hook it up and power them up your first Impression should be not to have a first Impression. Out of the box they are bright, flat and grainy. These babies need at least 100 hours and as many heat cycles that time allows. Around the 60 hour mark they start coming into their own. I found myself in a love hate thing the first few days reminiscent of some past relationships. The detail and bass was outstanding but so was the high end graininess lack of a sound stage and imaging.
Than The warmth and sound stage starts to appear while the flat and grainy aspects slowly disappear. Cymbals shimmer, piano’s sound like they are in the room; bass is tight and on a good recording you can hear the sound of a finger or pick before the tone on a guitar. Voices are well defined, magical and easy on the ears. The bright presentation seemed to mellow into a warm detailed top end with accurate and powerful bass. I was starting to have a romance with these amplifiers but was it a true romance or was I just getting used to the sound.
It was time to hook up the cav-180 and make a comparison. I used a Kenny G recording from HDnet. I believe it’s his latest DVD recorded in San Diego. What happened next was unexpected! The sound was so similar that it caught me totally off guard. The distinction was more detail in the XPA-1. The piano, Cymbals, chimes and Bongos all came alive with the XPA-1. There was one point where the drummer ran the chimes back and forth on camera. With the Classe this was very faint and if you didn’t see it on the screen you may have missed it. Not so with the XPA-1, it was there but placed just right in the scheme of things and you didn’t have to see it on the screen to know it was taking place. The soundstage sounded so similar I couldn’t point out any noticeable differences. I don’t know what I was expecting but the last thing was for an amplifier at this price point to hold it’s own with the likes of a Classe.
One word on heat and a couple words on appearance. The word on heat is forge-abou-it. I’m fortunate in that I have a basement and built a shelf hanging from the rafters so I don’t have to look at amplifiers. I put the XPA-1’s on the carpet in front of the TV and didn’t notice that they sunk in and the bottom was closed off until day 3. Absolutely no problem with heat or performance and I was pushing them pretty hard. I have no use for the LED light and meters on the front panel. The LED light for the signal-in happily continues to blink without any input connected to the amplifier. Do yourself a favor and just flip the switches off for both on the back panel right after you remove them from the box. The back-lit power button is the highlight with a nice blue tone when on and amber in standby mode.
The XPA-1 may fall into the bright category for some people but I would consider it warm and detailed. That said, one persons bright is another person’s Holy Grail. It’s all about personal preferences and what’s right for you. The one thing I do know for sure is that the XPA-1 is the holy grail of value and I guarantee you will never ever have the diminishing returns conversation about this amplifier. It still amazes me how similar it was to the Classe.
The XPA-1 can be as good as what you put in front and behind it I believe. It will expose a poor quality recording with little remorse. I kept on thinking about what Glenee said about this amplifier.
Originally posted by Glenee
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