Post by geebo on Sept 9, 2012 12:43:55 GMT -5
Leading up to Emofest this past Labor Day weekend I was mulling over what to get my wife for her birthday. 
I had narrowed it down to an XPA-2 or another X-Ref 12 to go with the one I got her last year (I currently have an Ultra-12 paired with the X-Ref). I had all but decided the X-Ref route but after talking with Vince and a few owners of the XPA-2 and learning what an XMC-1 can do with two subs and finally seeing the $599 price tag of a B stock XPA-2, I decided on the amp over the sub. I’ll say right now that I am glad I did.
I was so tired after getting home Sunday night after Emofest that I decided to just rest up and tackle the job of re-arranging the rack and installation of the amp until Monday (Labor Day). So after looking at it on the floor for a while, I decided I could get a head start by just re-arranging the equipment in the rack. When I finished that, I thought I could get a bigger head start and attach the rack ears and mount the amp into place. Then I figured hook-up would be easy enough and of course with it all hooked up, I had to make sure it would play, right?. So I put on a CD and was disappointed that only one channel was playing. Hmmm, checked connections and saw that all were good. Recheck switch positions. Ah ha! After installing the amp into the rack, I remembered that I had not checked the bal/unbal switches. So I looked at the rear panel graphic in the manual and reached around and checked the switch positions by feel. I remember thinking that the right channel switch was in the wrong position and it was a good thing I checked. But when I moved the right channel switch to the other position the sound emerged on the right channel. Checking the graphic in the manual against an actual photo of the back panel revealed the switch label to be reversed in the manual. So anyway, an easy fix that only took a few minutes to solve. But now it’s 2:30am and I’m tired and in no condition to do any serious listening so I call it quits and hit the sack.
After getting some sleep I wake up to the smell of coffee my wife had made and quickly grabbed a cup and put on some music. I am using an Oppo 93 with a coax feed to an XDA-1 connected to the UMC and listening mode set to Direct. Now to be honest, I didn’t know what I should be specifically listening for so I thought I’d just listen like I would on any other day before the XPA-2. I put on Pink Floyd’s WYWH from the Shine On box set with which I am very familiar and cranked up the volume. It wasn’t long before I noticed Gilmour’s guitar on ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ sounded more pure and less edgey for lack of a better term. I then popped in Dala’s 'Horses' and was pleasantly surprised by the clarity and smoothness of the vocal harmonies and piano with slightly better separation of the girls’s voices. I’m not talking L/R separation here, but rather more defined distinction between the individual voices. Another thing I noticed after extended listening is that now the bass sounds faster and tighter on just about everything. No doubt these improvements are due to the extra headroom and perhaps the speed of the XPA-2 with double the output devices per channel as compared to the XPA-5. The specs would indicate only about a 2 db improvement but perhaps the dynamic headroom may be even more than the specs would indicate.
So then I decide to try some multi-channel material. I put in Steely Dan’s Gaucho DVD-A and played 'Hey 19'. Loud! Now, my XPA-5 is connected to my center and surrounds only so a considerable load has been lifted from it. Because of that, I can play louder and cleaner than ever before and I have to say I was totally immersed in what I was hearing.
Since then, I have listened to a variety of material both stereo and multi channel and have confirmed my first impressions so I am convinced of an improvement. Not in frequency balance or response. Both amps sound the same in that regard. I’d have to sum it up as an increase in clarity of pure tones and the speed of the transients. Perhaps this could be attributable to something called slew rate which is a spec I don’t see much these days but if I remember correctly it has to do with how quickly an amp can respond to the onset and decay of a sharply rising or falling waveform.
I know, some of you may be thinking placebo. I don’t think so but at any rate, it’s real to me and I like it a lot.
I had narrowed it down to an XPA-2 or another X-Ref 12 to go with the one I got her last year (I currently have an Ultra-12 paired with the X-Ref). I had all but decided the X-Ref route but after talking with Vince and a few owners of the XPA-2 and learning what an XMC-1 can do with two subs and finally seeing the $599 price tag of a B stock XPA-2, I decided on the amp over the sub. I’ll say right now that I am glad I did.I was so tired after getting home Sunday night after Emofest that I decided to just rest up and tackle the job of re-arranging the rack and installation of the amp until Monday (Labor Day). So after looking at it on the floor for a while, I decided I could get a head start by just re-arranging the equipment in the rack. When I finished that, I thought I could get a bigger head start and attach the rack ears and mount the amp into place. Then I figured hook-up would be easy enough and of course with it all hooked up, I had to make sure it would play, right?. So I put on a CD and was disappointed that only one channel was playing. Hmmm, checked connections and saw that all were good. Recheck switch positions. Ah ha! After installing the amp into the rack, I remembered that I had not checked the bal/unbal switches. So I looked at the rear panel graphic in the manual and reached around and checked the switch positions by feel. I remember thinking that the right channel switch was in the wrong position and it was a good thing I checked. But when I moved the right channel switch to the other position the sound emerged on the right channel. Checking the graphic in the manual against an actual photo of the back panel revealed the switch label to be reversed in the manual. So anyway, an easy fix that only took a few minutes to solve. But now it’s 2:30am and I’m tired and in no condition to do any serious listening so I call it quits and hit the sack.
After getting some sleep I wake up to the smell of coffee my wife had made and quickly grabbed a cup and put on some music. I am using an Oppo 93 with a coax feed to an XDA-1 connected to the UMC and listening mode set to Direct. Now to be honest, I didn’t know what I should be specifically listening for so I thought I’d just listen like I would on any other day before the XPA-2. I put on Pink Floyd’s WYWH from the Shine On box set with which I am very familiar and cranked up the volume. It wasn’t long before I noticed Gilmour’s guitar on ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ sounded more pure and less edgey for lack of a better term. I then popped in Dala’s 'Horses' and was pleasantly surprised by the clarity and smoothness of the vocal harmonies and piano with slightly better separation of the girls’s voices. I’m not talking L/R separation here, but rather more defined distinction between the individual voices. Another thing I noticed after extended listening is that now the bass sounds faster and tighter on just about everything. No doubt these improvements are due to the extra headroom and perhaps the speed of the XPA-2 with double the output devices per channel as compared to the XPA-5. The specs would indicate only about a 2 db improvement but perhaps the dynamic headroom may be even more than the specs would indicate.
So then I decide to try some multi-channel material. I put in Steely Dan’s Gaucho DVD-A and played 'Hey 19'. Loud! Now, my XPA-5 is connected to my center and surrounds only so a considerable load has been lifted from it. Because of that, I can play louder and cleaner than ever before and I have to say I was totally immersed in what I was hearing.
Since then, I have listened to a variety of material both stereo and multi channel and have confirmed my first impressions so I am convinced of an improvement. Not in frequency balance or response. Both amps sound the same in that regard. I’d have to sum it up as an increase in clarity of pure tones and the speed of the transients. Perhaps this could be attributable to something called slew rate which is a spec I don’t see much these days but if I remember correctly it has to do with how quickly an amp can respond to the onset and decay of a sharply rising or falling waveform.
I know, some of you may be thinking placebo. I don’t think so but at any rate, it’s real to me and I like it a lot.
