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So I had an interesting AV day yesterday. First, Emotiva was in a suburb in Chicago. Second, my dealer is not far from where Emotiva was - so I planned an afternoon music.
My Emotiva experience was a bit disappointing. They did not have enough people there to handle the (relatively small) crowd. Most of their employees were not clearly labeled so it was impossible to recognize them. There was literally only one guy that was easily accessible but unfortunately he did not appear to be very versed in their products. The owner was there, I waited to talk to him for a while but never got the chance because he skipped right over me and went to talk to other people. Overall, I think the listening night with manufacturer reps that my dealer set up some time ago was much better organized and more productive. The best part of the Emotiva event was that they had very aggressive pricing for that day only.
So on to the meat of what I wanted to say. The one Emotiva guy referenced above told me that the XPA-1L is not going to be powerful enough to handle the 802 Diamonds. He suggested I stick with the XPA-1. He of course also said that XPAs are “right there on the same level as Parasound and McIntosh”.
Emotiva had an XPA-1 on a table with an XPA-1L sitting on top of it. Neither was driving anything but both were plugged in and on. There was nothing else near them (good ventilation). I can tell you the XPA-1L was hot enough to cook eggs on. You literally couldn’t keep your hand on top of it for more than 1 second.
Now on to the more fun part of the afternoon - I went to my dealer. They very recently got JL Audio and had an F112, an F113 and a DB1 in the “big” room. Unfortunately neither was “set up” nor calibrated so we spent a decent amount of time tinkering with them to try and get them to sort of be level matched (using our ears). At the end, I “auditioned” the F113 vs. the DB1. My initial impressions are that both subs are great. The surprises of the day were that I did not like the JL as much as I thought I would like it, and that I liked the DB1 more than I thought I would like it. I said this before, but now I am fully convinced that subs do not “sound the same”. Both the JL and B&W produced sound that was close to the other but they had a clear and distinct sound difference between them. I can’t say which one I liked better because this was not a very well controlled test and neither sub was set up “correctly”. But I can say that at this point I recommend either or and no one will be disappointed from either (imho).
P.S. I forgot to mention, the subwoofer were in a room with 800D2. I then auditioned a MC275 (tube amp) with a pair of 802D2. I am even more convinced now that I made the right decision on the speakers for me.
P.S.2. I posed this same post at another forum but felt it was worth sharing here as well :T
My Emotiva experience was a bit disappointing. They did not have enough people there to handle the (relatively small) crowd. Most of their employees were not clearly labeled so it was impossible to recognize them. There was literally only one guy that was easily accessible but unfortunately he did not appear to be very versed in their products. The owner was there, I waited to talk to him for a while but never got the chance because he skipped right over me and went to talk to other people. Overall, I think the listening night with manufacturer reps that my dealer set up some time ago was much better organized and more productive. The best part of the Emotiva event was that they had very aggressive pricing for that day only.
So on to the meat of what I wanted to say. The one Emotiva guy referenced above told me that the XPA-1L is not going to be powerful enough to handle the 802 Diamonds. He suggested I stick with the XPA-1. He of course also said that XPAs are “right there on the same level as Parasound and McIntosh”.
Emotiva had an XPA-1 on a table with an XPA-1L sitting on top of it. Neither was driving anything but both were plugged in and on. There was nothing else near them (good ventilation). I can tell you the XPA-1L was hot enough to cook eggs on. You literally couldn’t keep your hand on top of it for more than 1 second.
Now on to the more fun part of the afternoon - I went to my dealer. They very recently got JL Audio and had an F112, an F113 and a DB1 in the “big” room. Unfortunately neither was “set up” nor calibrated so we spent a decent amount of time tinkering with them to try and get them to sort of be level matched (using our ears). At the end, I “auditioned” the F113 vs. the DB1. My initial impressions are that both subs are great. The surprises of the day were that I did not like the JL as much as I thought I would like it, and that I liked the DB1 more than I thought I would like it. I said this before, but now I am fully convinced that subs do not “sound the same”. Both the JL and B&W produced sound that was close to the other but they had a clear and distinct sound difference between them. I can’t say which one I liked better because this was not a very well controlled test and neither sub was set up “correctly”. But I can say that at this point I recommend either or and no one will be disappointed from either (imho).
P.S. I forgot to mention, the subwoofer were in a room with 800D2. I then auditioned a MC275 (tube amp) with a pair of 802D2. I am even more convinced now that I made the right decision on the speakers for me.
P.S.2. I posed this same post at another forum but felt it was worth sharing here as well :T
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