mel73
Minor Hero
Posts: 29 
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Post by mel73 on Jan 5, 2016 21:21:15 GMT -5
just recieved my usp 1 and xpa 200. all i can say is im in such disbelief that my focal chorus 726s sound TERRIBLE. swapped out a pair of psb image b5's. the sound is much better,but still lacking. i KNOW emotiva is better than this. i used to have a upa5 and a anthem avm 30 pushing psb image t6's. that had a very nice sound. i remembered that sound. so when the time and funds came about,who did i think of first? Emotiva! of course. i even moved my svs pb1000 into the room to try to match up,no luck. its hard for me to understand. btw,for both systems i used an xbox360 hard drive for my music. i was looking into getting an erc 3, but now i'm wondering if it would be worth the investment.. help,please... DISCLAIMER; this is in no way meant to flame or tarnish emotiva or anyone elses reputation. please,just help me brainstorm and help me narrow the cause of this situation. thanks.
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Post by garbulky on Jan 5, 2016 21:24:49 GMT -5
Okay hold on. First of all DID YOU ADJUST SPEAKER POSITIONING?
You're going to need to do that. These are different amps with different gains and completely differnet power levels.
Also make sure that you have not connected the USP-1 to the phono input by accident. And that the subwoofer controls are set properly on the USP-1. For isntance if your subwoofer isn't connected make sure that you aren't enabling the the subwoofer mangement etc.
Also if your reciever has room correction you need to turn that OFF first before you do. (and then adjust speaker positioning.
If your reciever is on Night time mode or dynamic control that too needs to be turned off. Simply turning room correction off for now may make a difference.
In fact just for now take the USP-1 COMPLETELY OUT OF THE LOOP just to make sure you are not making some gaffe with the USP-1 setup controls.
The XPA-200 is a great amp and should run circles around your current amp. (IMO)
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novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
Posts: 27,248
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Post by novisnick on Jan 5, 2016 21:25:32 GMT -5
Sounds as if something is not connected properly. It's usually something very simple, crossed wires or aninput/output messed up,,,,,,,,been there done that.
Good luck, thats all I have at the moment.
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mel73
Minor Hero
Posts: 29
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Post by mel73 on Jan 5, 2016 21:47:23 GMT -5
emo gear is in a separate listening room. denon is for our 5.1. im just wanting a 2.0 system for winding down. yes,i have positioned the speakers away from the walls and in the triangular positioning pattern. slightly toed in. with my psb image t6's i could turn off my subwoofer and could never tell it was off. im at a loss. going to go check out my connections again. thanks all for the help.
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Post by pedrocols on Jan 5, 2016 23:26:26 GMT -5
Sometimes lack of bass is due to connecting the speaker out of phase.
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Post by ocezam on Jan 5, 2016 23:45:23 GMT -5
Can't happen. All amps sound the same, right?
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Post by Boomzilla on Jan 5, 2016 23:46:55 GMT -5
I had some VINTAGE Klipsch La Scalas that liked tube amps better than the Emotivas, but other than that, no.
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mel73
Minor Hero
Posts: 29
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Post by mel73 on Jan 6, 2016 0:09:57 GMT -5
its wired in phase. been experimenting with positioning. seems like when in sitting in my chair,its kind of shrill past 9 o clock. then i sat on the floor and it came together quite a bit better. this is without my pb1000. will work with integrating it in the system tomorrow as the wife is unpleased with my activities at this hour.
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Post by brutiarti on Jan 6, 2016 0:21:40 GMT -5
its wired in phase. been experimenting with positioning. seems like when in sitting in my chair,its kind of shrill past 9 o clock. then i sat on the floor and it came together quite a bit better. this is without my pb1000. will work with integrating it in the system tomorrow as the wife is unpleased with my activities at this hour. What DAC are you using? |
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Post by mshump on Jan 6, 2016 7:44:24 GMT -5
I had the USP-1 and chorus 714,s, The teeters were very shrill at higher volumes. I use Jriver for my music and used the equalizer to tame them down a bit. I eventually put in a gen-1 XSP-1 and the sound changed dramatically. I am very happy with the XSP-1 and my tweeters don't shrill anymore.
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Post by audiobill on Jan 6, 2016 8:19:55 GMT -5
I found the XPA-1's harsher than tubes on my Magneplanar 1.7s as well as my Dynaudio Geminis.
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mel73
Minor Hero
Posts: 29
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Post by mel73 on Jan 6, 2016 10:14:47 GMT -5
im not using a dac. my goals are playing ONLY cd's, no streaming or computer at all. 2 channel full range sound. the sound is so thin, strings hold no WEIGHT. sounds decent at low volume, turn up the volume to get immersed in the sound and everything goes out of focus and just assaults my ears with ugly and unclear sounds. its pure torture. i listen to all genres of music. the only thing that sounds decent is slow tempo songs like "angel" by sara mclachlan. but just an up tempo swing in sound such as steely dan and the soundstage disintegrates like being at a Nirvana concert. its very unpleasing. i guess i made the wrong choice. man my upa5 sounded much different. it was warm and full,this is thin and cold.
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Post by garbulky on Jan 6, 2016 12:33:12 GMT -5
im not using a dac. my goals are playing ONLY cd's, no streaming or computer at all. 2 channel full range sound. the sound is so thin, strings hold no WEIGHT. sounds decent at low volume, turn up the volume to get immersed in the sound and everything goes out of focus and just assaults my ears with ugly and unclear sounds. its pure torture. i listen to all genres of music. the only thing that sounds decent is slow tempo songs like "angel" by sara mclachlan. but just an up tempo swing in sound such as steely dan and the soundstage disintegrates like being at a Nirvana concert. its very unpleasing. i guess i made the wrong choice. man my upa5 sounded much different. it was warm and full,this is thin and cold. It is definitely curious your experience. Are you sure you have your subwoofer management turned off? You want to connect to the full range outputs not the high pass. I don't think you made the wrong choice. I think the amp maybe bad. Or for some reason something else is off.  ^^^Connect to full range. Also check to make sure your speakers aren't out of phase. Unclear no weight thin sound is a symptom of out of phase as well. www.richardfarrar.com/are-your-speakers-wired-correctly/Go to phase test and run that. Or alternatively just switch the wires on only ONE of the speakers. If suddenly the sound fixes itself it is out of phase. But I suspect you connected it to the high pass filter by accident and turned the knob to something high like 250hz. Also.....what are your speakers? Do they have bi amp terminals on them? If so when you were hooking up the speakers the jumper that connected the bi amp terminals together may have fallen out or worse be accidentally connected to the wrong terminal in a zig zag pattern  Look for the bridging plate (jumper) are they still there? Are they connected correctly? Your speaker wires should connect in a row left ot right. Not up and down. Now the nice thing about a DAC is that it will connect to the digital output of your CD player and work just like it. |
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Post by pedrocols on Jan 6, 2016 12:53:55 GMT -5
im not using a dac. my goals are playing ONLY cd's, no streaming or computer at all. 2 channel full range sound. the sound is so thin, strings hold no WEIGHT. sounds decent at low volume, turn up the volume to get immersed in the sound and everything goes out of focus and just assaults my ears with ugly and unclear sounds. its pure torture. i listen to all genres of music. the only thing that sounds decent is slow tempo songs like "angel" by sara mclachlan. but just an up tempo swing in sound such as steely dan and the soundstage disintegrates like being at a Nirvana concert. its very unpleasing. i guess i made the wrong choice. man my upa5 sounded much different. it was warm and full,this is thin and cold. Well basically the CD player has a built in DAC. |
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Post by snafujg on Jan 6, 2016 13:11:13 GMT -5
im not using a dac. my goals are playing ONLY cd's, no streaming or computer at all. 2 channel full range sound. the sound is so thin, strings hold no WEIGHT. sounds decent at low volume, turn up the volume to get immersed in the sound and everything goes out of focus and just assaults my ears with ugly and unclear sounds. its pure torture. i listen to all genres of music. the only thing that sounds decent is slow tempo songs like "angel" by sara mclachlan. but just an up tempo swing in sound such as steely dan and the soundstage disintegrates like being at a Nirvana concert. its very unpleasing. i guess i made the wrong choice. man my upa5 sounded much different. it was warm and full,this is thin and cold. It is definitely curious your experience. Are you sure you have your subwoofer management turned off? You want to connect to the full range outputs not the high pass. I don't think you made the wrong choice. I think the amp maybe bad. Or for some reason something else is off. ^^^Connect to full range. Also check to make sure your speakers aren't out of phase. Unclear no weight thin sound is a symptom of out of phase as well. www.richardfarrar.com/are-your-speakers-wired-correctly/Go to phase test and run that. Or alternatively just switch the wires on only ONE of the speakers. If suddenly the sound fixes itself it is out of phase. But I suspect you connected it to the high pass filter by accident and turned the knob to something high like 250hz. Also.....what are your speakers? Do they have bi amp terminals on them? If so when you were hooking up the speakers the jumper that connected the bi amp terminals together may have fallen out or worse be accidentally connected to the wrong terminal in a zig zag pattern Look for the bridging plate (jumper) are they still there? Are they connected correctly? Your speaker wires should connect in a row left ot right. Not up and down. Now the nice thing about a DAC is that it will connect to the digital output of your CD player and work just like it. Focals don't have biwire option, so no jumper involved. |
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Lsc
Emo VIPs 
Posts: 3,366
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Post by Lsc on Jan 6, 2016 14:42:33 GMT -5
It's not surprising to me. Focals tend to be a little bright and the lower line Emotiva tend be a little forward sounding as well so the combo may not be a good match.
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Post by brutiarti on Jan 6, 2016 15:36:21 GMT -5
It's not surprising to me. Focals tend to be a little bright and the lower line Emotiva tend be a little forward sounding as well so the combo may not be a good match. I agree that they can sound forward but not terrible like the op said. I might check the dac/cd player used as the new amp/pre might be showing the weakest links. |
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Post by lionear on Jan 6, 2016 18:06:52 GMT -5
I'd not waste more time - I suggest sending the units back and getting replacements. If the replacements sound the same, then there's some incompatibility between your system and the Emotiva gear.
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Post by vneal on Jan 6, 2016 21:34:54 GMT -5
I had some VINTAGE Klipsch La Scalas that liked tube amps better than the Emotivas, but other than that, no. Tube amps can really sound good with the LaScalas |
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mel73
Minor Hero
Posts: 29
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Post by mel73 on Jan 6, 2016 21:41:02 GMT -5
yes it is all hooked up correctly. i AM familiar with the difference between full range and high and low pass. as a matter of fact the focal chorus 726s DOES have bi amp capability with jumpers. and yes,they are installed. i just bought the amp and preamp used. i dont really have the cash to repair this equipment. i guess im just done...
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