Post by Trentster5172 on Apr 22, 2014 16:22:09 GMT -5
I figured I would give you a quick review of my Emotiva Fusion 8100. First a little history- I am a brand new Emotiva customer, but I have been watching them from a distance for a few months, reading all kinds of reviews, forum posts, etc. I currently have a hook-up to buy Denon and Marantz stuff through a dealer buddy of mine. I was giving some serious thought to the Marantz 7008 or the Denon 4520ci (the last of the Japan built receivers). Unfortunately I was turned off to the Denon mainly due to the reviews not being as favorable as the Marantz. Instead of getting a new receiver, I originally decided to go the cheap route and just add a new separate amp to my Yamaha RX-V2500. I had just purchased a pair of Klipsch RF-7II’s to add to my RC-64II, swapping out a set of RF-82II’s. I thought I’d breathe a little fire into the front stage, so I ordered an XPA-3 Gen2 for my left, right, and center. I was super impressed with the sound of my XPA-3 using my RX-V2500 as a pre-amp for the fronts and an actual amp for my four surrounds. I was super happy, but still wanted an HDMI receiver with Bluetooth. I was so impressed with the build quality of the XPA that a month later I decided to go ahead and get the Fusion with the cash from the sale of my RF-82’s.
What I like:
Packaged very well, and the build quality is awesome. It’s on par with the Japanese stuff and has a metal face.
At 25 pounds it’s a tank for such a thin receiver. In fact with my Oppo BDP-83SE stacked with it, it’s still not as tall as my XPA-3.
The sound is warm and detailed. My definition of “warm” is the speaker is extremely detailed, but the treble is not over-powering making it tiring to listen to. The lower bass frequencies aren’t lacking and there is a punch to the bass. That being said, don’t expect this right out of the box. When I first hooked it up it made my RF-7’s it sounded like they were right in my face. The treble was harsh and the bass was somewhat lacking. I left the Fusion on for about three days straight playing music. It now produces a warm sound and is awesome!
I love the fact that the HDMI stays on the last video source when you switch to music.
The Fusion’s Cirrus DAC’s seem to be on par with my BDP-83SE for 7.1. I have it hooked up both ways and in switching back and forth it sounds almost the same for movies in the mids and highs. There might be a little more detail using the Oppo’s DAC’s, but as far as bass, my subs sound so my better using the Fusion to do the processing through its DAC’s via HDMI. As for 2-channel CD listening there is still no comparison. The Oppo’s stacked DAC’s sound superior to me.
The Bluetooth sounds pretty darn good even though I have an iPhone that doesn’t have Apt-X. I’m considering the apple TV route – I would be interested on any feedback anyone has on that.
What I don’t like:
The room correction only fully optimizes for 5.1. It will calculate the distance of your rear surrounds, the frequency cut-off, and sound level; however, it will not do any equalizing for the 6th and 7th channels. In addition you can’t even manually use the parametric EQ for the rear surrounds. You can however go crazy with the EQ of the other five channels, and it even gives you three bands for the sub. Was this the case with the UMC-200? Do I have a setting wrong I wonder since I can't do anything EQ wise with 6 and 7? Maybe I just don't understand how to make that work yet. That being said, the auto EQ room correction to me sounds harsh and fatiguing in the treble anyways so I'm not using it. I wasn’t a fan of the auto EQ portion of YPAO either and I always just set it as Flat which is what I did with the Fusion. Don't expect it to get the cut-off for your sub right either. I manually set it to 80hz.
There is a very slight hum in my front three speakers through the XPA-3 when the volume is completely down hooked to the Fusion. This was not the case with my Yamaha being used as a pre-amp. I may be a little picky though as the hum goes away when music is played even at the lowest volume setting and you literally almost have to put your ears up to the horns of the front speakers to hear any hum at all.
Any buyer’s remorse? - I have absolutely no regrets on my decision; however, I have formed an opinion that my ten year old Yamaha RX-V2500 is still a legit performer so I will be keeping it! I now have it upstairs on my Forte’s for two channel listening. At first there was a definite difference in sound between the Fusion and the Yamaha. Now after the Fusion has been on for a few days straight that sound gap has closed. The Fusion/XPA-3/RF-7II combo sounds much more detailed and has just the right amount of very tight effortless bass. In fact there is so much bass that I don’t use my subs for music at all. The Forte/Yamaha combination is not quite as detailed, but it may be because these speakers are from 1986 and have never been capped.
If you have any questions or want me to experiment further let me know. Maybe next year I will pull the trigger on Emotiva’s XMC-1, but for now I’m very pleased!
Trent
Upstairs:
73" Mitsubishi Diamond Series DLP WD-73833
Yamaha RX-V2500 Receiver
2- Klipsch Forte's (1986)
XBOX 360
DirecTV HD
Downstairs:
Mitsubish HC7000 Diamond Series Projector
123" Stewart Firehawk Filmscreen
Emotiva Fusion 8100
Emotiva XPA-3 Gen 2
Oppo BDP-83SE blu-ray player
XBOX 360
DirecTV HD
2- Klipsch RF-7 II's
1- Klipsch RC-64 II
2- Klipsch RB-51 II's
4- Klipsch RS-42 II's
2- Klipsch SW-115's
What I like:
Packaged very well, and the build quality is awesome. It’s on par with the Japanese stuff and has a metal face.
At 25 pounds it’s a tank for such a thin receiver. In fact with my Oppo BDP-83SE stacked with it, it’s still not as tall as my XPA-3.
The sound is warm and detailed. My definition of “warm” is the speaker is extremely detailed, but the treble is not over-powering making it tiring to listen to. The lower bass frequencies aren’t lacking and there is a punch to the bass. That being said, don’t expect this right out of the box. When I first hooked it up it made my RF-7’s it sounded like they were right in my face. The treble was harsh and the bass was somewhat lacking. I left the Fusion on for about three days straight playing music. It now produces a warm sound and is awesome!
I love the fact that the HDMI stays on the last video source when you switch to music.
The Fusion’s Cirrus DAC’s seem to be on par with my BDP-83SE for 7.1. I have it hooked up both ways and in switching back and forth it sounds almost the same for movies in the mids and highs. There might be a little more detail using the Oppo’s DAC’s, but as far as bass, my subs sound so my better using the Fusion to do the processing through its DAC’s via HDMI. As for 2-channel CD listening there is still no comparison. The Oppo’s stacked DAC’s sound superior to me.
The Bluetooth sounds pretty darn good even though I have an iPhone that doesn’t have Apt-X. I’m considering the apple TV route – I would be interested on any feedback anyone has on that.
What I don’t like:
The room correction only fully optimizes for 5.1. It will calculate the distance of your rear surrounds, the frequency cut-off, and sound level; however, it will not do any equalizing for the 6th and 7th channels. In addition you can’t even manually use the parametric EQ for the rear surrounds. You can however go crazy with the EQ of the other five channels, and it even gives you three bands for the sub. Was this the case with the UMC-200? Do I have a setting wrong I wonder since I can't do anything EQ wise with 6 and 7? Maybe I just don't understand how to make that work yet. That being said, the auto EQ room correction to me sounds harsh and fatiguing in the treble anyways so I'm not using it. I wasn’t a fan of the auto EQ portion of YPAO either and I always just set it as Flat which is what I did with the Fusion. Don't expect it to get the cut-off for your sub right either. I manually set it to 80hz.
There is a very slight hum in my front three speakers through the XPA-3 when the volume is completely down hooked to the Fusion. This was not the case with my Yamaha being used as a pre-amp. I may be a little picky though as the hum goes away when music is played even at the lowest volume setting and you literally almost have to put your ears up to the horns of the front speakers to hear any hum at all.
Any buyer’s remorse? - I have absolutely no regrets on my decision; however, I have formed an opinion that my ten year old Yamaha RX-V2500 is still a legit performer so I will be keeping it! I now have it upstairs on my Forte’s for two channel listening. At first there was a definite difference in sound between the Fusion and the Yamaha. Now after the Fusion has been on for a few days straight that sound gap has closed. The Fusion/XPA-3/RF-7II combo sounds much more detailed and has just the right amount of very tight effortless bass. In fact there is so much bass that I don’t use my subs for music at all. The Forte/Yamaha combination is not quite as detailed, but it may be because these speakers are from 1986 and have never been capped.
If you have any questions or want me to experiment further let me know. Maybe next year I will pull the trigger on Emotiva’s XMC-1, but for now I’m very pleased!
Trent
Upstairs:
73" Mitsubishi Diamond Series DLP WD-73833
Yamaha RX-V2500 Receiver
2- Klipsch Forte's (1986)
XBOX 360
DirecTV HD
Downstairs:
Mitsubish HC7000 Diamond Series Projector
123" Stewart Firehawk Filmscreen
Emotiva Fusion 8100
Emotiva XPA-3 Gen 2
Oppo BDP-83SE blu-ray player
XBOX 360
DirecTV HD
2- Klipsch RF-7 II's
1- Klipsch RC-64 II
2- Klipsch RB-51 II's
4- Klipsch RS-42 II's
2- Klipsch SW-115's