Post by Reverend Slim on Mar 5, 2013 13:25:16 GMT -5
I've wanted to add external amplification to my system for some time now, and was looking at the XPA-3 last year as a good way to do that, based on some of the reviews I had read. However, around that time, I found a good deal for an Adcom GFA-5503 on eBay, which I quickly snapped up.
At first, the Adcom sounded pretty good. Then a few weeks of use later, the right channel started crackling. I took it to a local pro-audio shop that usually works on stage gear, and after 6 weeks of them fiddling with it, they were never able to fix the problem. So then, I came across a Parasound HCA-2003 for sale over at Polk Audio's forums, so I decided I would roll the dice on a used amp yet again. Immediately after I locked down the purchase of that amp, someone else at their forum had a Parasound HCA-1206 for sale... so I thought, "Hey, buy that one too and you can have all 9 channels amplified!" Made sense at the time...
I got the HCA-2003 and it sounded pretty nice - definitely better than the Adcom. Then one night, the center channel starts crackling. I turned it off and back on... problem gone, so I thought it was a fluke. Got the HCA-1206, hooked everything up... Channel 5 of the amp sounded blown.
At this point, I was determined to get the Parasounds working, so I searched for local techs who deal with these kind of amps. There were none. A friend who is a local musician then pointed me in the direction of a guy an hour away who would be able to help, so I called him... and ended up driving all three amps to Pensacola, Florida. He had the amps for several months, breaking them down component by component, e-mailing me updates as he found problems (including obvious damage caused during shipping, which at this point was beyond the time the sellers could make a claim against UPS). So about a month ago, he brought all 3 amps back to me, supposedly repaired.
I quickly shoved the Adcom in the closet and hooked both Parasounds up to my system. The HCA-2003 sounded solid, but the HCA-1206 still had a weird sound in channel 5. I shot the tech a message about it and he said he would investigate, so I put my height channels back on my AVR and just ran channels 1-4 of the 1206. Then a few days later, channel 2 dropped +10dB in level for no apparent reason... and the right channel of the 2003 started crackling. I called Tony at Parasound and he gave me a laundry list of things for the tech to check.
This was about 7 months after I first bought the Adcom. So I yanked the Parasounds and hooked the supposedly-fixed Adcom back up. The right channel sounded like it was completely functional. However, a few hours of use later... you guessed it - the left channel started crackling. I did everything I could to rule out other causes - swapped interconnects, tested my pre-outs, etc. Ultimately, I just kept using the Adcom for my mains and put my center and surrounds back on my AVR, which sounded okay... but not great. At this point, I was at about $1,200 in used amps, was 0 for 3 on them working right, and had spent $75 to the first tech and $250 to the second... and still didn't have a single working amp to show for it.
So I contacted the tech again so I could get all three amps back to him, and he was out of town... and wouldn't return for a week or so. This was my official breaking point - I saw the sale on the XPA-3 and ordered one. Since Emotiva is just north of me, I received my amp the following day and immediately wired it all up with Blue Jeans LC-1 ICs and 10ga speaker cables with locking banana plugs. Since there was too much activity in my house at the time, I didn't have a chance to re-run Audyssey that night... but I immediately noticed an improvement over the Adcom after I level-matched with my SPL meter. My initial impression was that the XPA-3 had much cleaner highs, without the grainy sound that the Adcom seemed to lend highs. Noise floor was better than the Adcom, but not quite as dead quiet as the Parasound (though you'd have to have your ear about an inch from the tweeters to hear either). Mid-range seemed improved, with voices really coming through nicely. Bass seemed a little bloated, and things didn't seem to quite be lining up across the crossover to my SVS sub, but I was still using the equalization done with the Parasounds in place.
Last Saturday, I powered everything up for a bit then did a full 8-position run of Audyssey and sat down to assess the sound. All I can say is WHOA! Post-equalization with music, the XPA-3 had a sound beyond what I had heard from either the Adcom or the Parasound. The issues I heard in the crossover range were gone... and though I would normally turn the crossover points up from the 40Hz Audyssey assessed for my mains/center to something higher than my speakers' spec'd -3dB point, it sounds so good that I've decided to leave it where Audyssey detected them. The real revelation came, however, when I threw a few Blu-rays at it. Inception has some of the most intense room-endangering bass you'll hear... and with the XPA-3, it sounded closer to my local theater than my room has ever sounded (though most of my friends have always thought my room sounded better than any of our local theaters anyway, none of which even have 7.1 yet, much less my 9.1 setup with heights). Even at levels much higher than I would normally listen to, the sound was totally clean, bass was tight, and dialogue was perfectly intelligible. Since then, I've thrown Tron Legacy, Skyfall, and a few other flicks at it... and I couldn't be happier. My mains and center now blend perfectly with my SVS - more than they ever have, honestly.
So after a long journey, welcome me to the club. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't just buy the XPA-3 in the first place and avoid all of the used amp drama I've been through for the past 8 months... but I guess sometimes, you have to go on a ride to appreciate the destination. I'm still going to have the Adcom and Parasounds repaired, but despite the minor things I like more about the sound of the Parasound with music, I don't see the XPA-3 coming out of my system... and even once they're back in action, I can't in good conscience see me making my money back on them. Let this serve as a lesson to others - BUY NEW. Yeah, used amps can potentially be a great way to get into quality gear on the cheap... but as my experience proves, it can also be a giant expensive crapshoot that results in a lot of anger instead of the enjoyment it was intended to give you. Well done, Emotiva... You've made me a fan. There is absolutely no reason an amp at this price point should sound this freakin' good!
At first, the Adcom sounded pretty good. Then a few weeks of use later, the right channel started crackling. I took it to a local pro-audio shop that usually works on stage gear, and after 6 weeks of them fiddling with it, they were never able to fix the problem. So then, I came across a Parasound HCA-2003 for sale over at Polk Audio's forums, so I decided I would roll the dice on a used amp yet again. Immediately after I locked down the purchase of that amp, someone else at their forum had a Parasound HCA-1206 for sale... so I thought, "Hey, buy that one too and you can have all 9 channels amplified!" Made sense at the time...
I got the HCA-2003 and it sounded pretty nice - definitely better than the Adcom. Then one night, the center channel starts crackling. I turned it off and back on... problem gone, so I thought it was a fluke. Got the HCA-1206, hooked everything up... Channel 5 of the amp sounded blown.
At this point, I was determined to get the Parasounds working, so I searched for local techs who deal with these kind of amps. There were none. A friend who is a local musician then pointed me in the direction of a guy an hour away who would be able to help, so I called him... and ended up driving all three amps to Pensacola, Florida. He had the amps for several months, breaking them down component by component, e-mailing me updates as he found problems (including obvious damage caused during shipping, which at this point was beyond the time the sellers could make a claim against UPS). So about a month ago, he brought all 3 amps back to me, supposedly repaired.
I quickly shoved the Adcom in the closet and hooked both Parasounds up to my system. The HCA-2003 sounded solid, but the HCA-1206 still had a weird sound in channel 5. I shot the tech a message about it and he said he would investigate, so I put my height channels back on my AVR and just ran channels 1-4 of the 1206. Then a few days later, channel 2 dropped +10dB in level for no apparent reason... and the right channel of the 2003 started crackling. I called Tony at Parasound and he gave me a laundry list of things for the tech to check.
This was about 7 months after I first bought the Adcom. So I yanked the Parasounds and hooked the supposedly-fixed Adcom back up. The right channel sounded like it was completely functional. However, a few hours of use later... you guessed it - the left channel started crackling. I did everything I could to rule out other causes - swapped interconnects, tested my pre-outs, etc. Ultimately, I just kept using the Adcom for my mains and put my center and surrounds back on my AVR, which sounded okay... but not great. At this point, I was at about $1,200 in used amps, was 0 for 3 on them working right, and had spent $75 to the first tech and $250 to the second... and still didn't have a single working amp to show for it.
So I contacted the tech again so I could get all three amps back to him, and he was out of town... and wouldn't return for a week or so. This was my official breaking point - I saw the sale on the XPA-3 and ordered one. Since Emotiva is just north of me, I received my amp the following day and immediately wired it all up with Blue Jeans LC-1 ICs and 10ga speaker cables with locking banana plugs. Since there was too much activity in my house at the time, I didn't have a chance to re-run Audyssey that night... but I immediately noticed an improvement over the Adcom after I level-matched with my SPL meter. My initial impression was that the XPA-3 had much cleaner highs, without the grainy sound that the Adcom seemed to lend highs. Noise floor was better than the Adcom, but not quite as dead quiet as the Parasound (though you'd have to have your ear about an inch from the tweeters to hear either). Mid-range seemed improved, with voices really coming through nicely. Bass seemed a little bloated, and things didn't seem to quite be lining up across the crossover to my SVS sub, but I was still using the equalization done with the Parasounds in place.
Last Saturday, I powered everything up for a bit then did a full 8-position run of Audyssey and sat down to assess the sound. All I can say is WHOA! Post-equalization with music, the XPA-3 had a sound beyond what I had heard from either the Adcom or the Parasound. The issues I heard in the crossover range were gone... and though I would normally turn the crossover points up from the 40Hz Audyssey assessed for my mains/center to something higher than my speakers' spec'd -3dB point, it sounds so good that I've decided to leave it where Audyssey detected them. The real revelation came, however, when I threw a few Blu-rays at it. Inception has some of the most intense room-endangering bass you'll hear... and with the XPA-3, it sounded closer to my local theater than my room has ever sounded (though most of my friends have always thought my room sounded better than any of our local theaters anyway, none of which even have 7.1 yet, much less my 9.1 setup with heights). Even at levels much higher than I would normally listen to, the sound was totally clean, bass was tight, and dialogue was perfectly intelligible. Since then, I've thrown Tron Legacy, Skyfall, and a few other flicks at it... and I couldn't be happier. My mains and center now blend perfectly with my SVS - more than they ever have, honestly.
So after a long journey, welcome me to the club. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't just buy the XPA-3 in the first place and avoid all of the used amp drama I've been through for the past 8 months... but I guess sometimes, you have to go on a ride to appreciate the destination. I'm still going to have the Adcom and Parasounds repaired, but despite the minor things I like more about the sound of the Parasound with music, I don't see the XPA-3 coming out of my system... and even once they're back in action, I can't in good conscience see me making my money back on them. Let this serve as a lesson to others - BUY NEW. Yeah, used amps can potentially be a great way to get into quality gear on the cheap... but as my experience proves, it can also be a giant expensive crapshoot that results in a lot of anger instead of the enjoyment it was intended to give you. Well done, Emotiva... You've made me a fan. There is absolutely no reason an amp at this price point should sound this freakin' good!
;D 
