XPA-DR2 Review From A First Time Emotiva Owner

[ordinaryaudiophile]

Hello All,

I received my XPA-DR2 last Thursday, and I thought that I'd share my experience for those who have been wondering whether or not Emotiva actually does live up to the marketing hype.  

First things first...  When I first unboxed the amp my hi-fi prejudices kicked right in.  I felt that the amp was no where as heavy as a high end amp should be.  There were no heat sinks, the top of the amp was just plain vented metal and thus felt like a massive Japanese-made amp instead of something that I would call an audiophile product.  The rear of the amp looked really industrial though - I don't think I've ever seen binding posts as big as these!  The manual didn't lend much confidence, either.  It looks like it's the manual they have been shipping with every Gen 3 amp, as I didn't see any info on the DR models.  Also, I spotted a spelling error... Gasp!

Thursday Night:
The first time I plugged it up and turned it on, the amber light started to flash.  I turned it off and on again, and all appears to be fine.  For the first five minutes of playing the sound was a bit grainy in the upper frequencies.  But, somewhere around 7-9 minutes the grain was completely gone.  I guess it needed to warm up.  I ran through a few tracks for the next 25 minutes, and I was really impressed with how clean the amp sounds.  It drove my PSB Platinum T8's effortlessly, and I could swear that I was hearing details that I hadn't heard before.  Still, I tempered my enthusiasm for the next listening session.

Saturday Afternoon:
Okay, so it was now time to hear what the amp can really do.  I turned it on, and no lights were flashing (good sign!).  I started to play Ode to Joy, purely because I had listened to it earlier in the day while exercising.  Yes, it's an impressive piece of music, but what struck me was how easy it was to pinpoint where the various singers and instrument groups were playing.  There was no muddying of the stereo image, either.  It was all very distinct.  Also, I noticed that the amp didn't require any warm up time in order for it to become grain free.  In retrospect, when I first used it for the first time it would have been completely cold.  The second time around it had at least been in standby.

After Ode to Joy I moved on to Carmen.  This recording was processed at a different amplitude, but the recording quality was also vastly superior to the my recording of Ode to Joy.  The sound was utterly spectacular, so much so that I cranked the volume up so that I could fully immerse myself into the operatic experience.  The low level detail, the depth, the realism were all just amazing.  So much so that I felt that I needed to find time to listen to the entire opera from start to finish instead of just listening to my favorite songs.  Never before had I listened to a piece of classical and had my arms flinging around like a conductor, and never had I felt compelled to belt out "Toreadorrrrrrrr!" like I did on this day.

Next up was some more classical from Linn Records, this time a 24/96 recording.  Here's one of the more interesting things I experienced...  Prior to the DR2 I always felt that I could intuitively tell when a file was high resolution.  And just a few weeks before I had convinced myself that a 256k recording done REALLY right can fool my ears into believing that I'm listening to a 16bit track.  This is NOT the case with the DR2.  It was really obvious that the recording was high resolution, and that really changed my perception about high resolution recording.  Similarly, the 256k file that I was giving the nod to a few weeks ago now sounds like a low resolution recording.

After this I wanted to see what the amp could do with other types of music.  Arca's Xen and Mutant are electronic albums that I have a lot of love for.  The recordings are very broad in the frequency spectrum, and the sound design is incredibly complex.  Music and all sorts of industrial sounds zip in and out of the soundscape.  Scratches and bleeps abound.  The compositions sweep from romantic to aggressive from one moment to the next.  What I did not expect to find is how much stereo design has gone into these songs.  The depth, width and height, of the recordings are far greater than I could have imagined.  Listening to them on the DR2 gave me more respect for Arca than I had before.  He's a three dimensional sound wizard!

I decided to end the listening session with some Aldous Harding and Agnes Obel.  Harding has a song could Party that is equal parts loving and painful, thus making it uniquely beautiful IMO.  Well, once again the DR2 absolutely destroyed my previous amp.  The detail was astounding.  Likewise with Obel's Familiar, the various singers were elevated in ways that I hadn't experienced before.

Aldous Harding - Party (the CD version is better)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7r4hjAsGXw

Agnes Obel - Familiar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kYH6XZrIo


Sunday Morning:
The one thing that seemed really obvious at this point was that the DR2 was allowing me to rekindle an appreciation for classical music.  My brain had been whirring about the various recordings that I hadn't listened to in years.  One in particular demanded a listen: Pavane Op 50.  I figured that I would listen to the song at normal volume levels, because I had been wondering if the additional detail I had been hearing was because I had the sound so much higher.  NOPE!  Even when played at this level, details in the recording were laid bare.  It's a beautiful piece of music, and the DR2 played it in such a musical fashion.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDoN40-_C4

Conclusion:
Okay, so yeah the audio snob that I've been conditioned to be over the last 30 years got a royal kicking in the ass by this amp.  My system has never sounded better across every kind of music I threw at this amp.  There's a certain pair of speakers that I've lusted over for about five years, and I swore to myself that it made no sense to upgrade my speakers until I could afford a pair from that particular manufacturer.  Does my system now sound as realistic as that $125k+ plus system?  No.  But after this weekend I don't feel that aspiration to move up to the next level.  I'm happy...  really, really happy with my purchase.  Based on the first weekend of ownership, I 'd say that the DR2 is a very high quality audiophile amp.  It's dramatically better than my prior amp which had all of the hi-fi cosmetics and reviewer respect that one could ask for.

Verdict - Game changer. 

[cwmcobra]

Welcome to the Lounge! And what a thoughtful and inspiring review. I've got a bunch of old school Sherbourn and Emotiva stuff that I'll be using for a long time. But it's nice to hear that Emotiva's new products are game-changing. That's high praise and what we've come to expect from the wizards at Emotiva.

Now there's a visual image....Big Dan in a Wizard's hat!!

Cheers!

Chuck

[davidl81]

Feb 12, 2018 10:03:30 GMT -5 ordinaryaudiophile said:

Hello All,

I received my XPA-DR2 last Thursday, and I thought that I'd share my experience for those who have been wondering whether or not Emotiva actually does live up to the marketing hype.  

First things first...  When I first unboxed the amp my hi-fi prejudices kicked right in.  I felt that the amp was no where as heavy as a high end amp should be.  There were no heat sinks, the top of the amp was just plain vented metal and thus felt like a massive Japanese-made amp instead of something that I would call an audiophile product.  The rear of the amp looked really industrial though - I don't think I've ever seen binding posts as big as these!  The manual didn't lend much confidence, either.  It looks like it's the manual they have been shipping with every Gen 3 amp, as I didn't see any info on the DR models.  Also, I spotted a spelling error... Gasp!

Thursday Night:
The first time I plugged it up and turned it on, the amber light started to flash.  I turned it off and on again, and all appears to be fine.  For the first five minutes of playing the sound was a bit grainy in the upper frequencies.  But, somewhere around 7-9 minutes the grain was completely gone.  I guess it needed to warm up.  I ran through a few tracks for the next 25 minutes, and I was really impressed with how clean the amp sounds.  It drove my PSB Platinum T8's effortlessly, and I could swear that I was hearing details that I hadn't heard before.  Still, I tempered my enthusiasm for the next listening session.

Saturday Afternoon:
Okay, so it was now time to hear what the amp can really do.  I turned it on, and no lights were flashing (good sign!).  I started to play Ode to Joy, purely because I had listened to it earlier in the day while exercising.  Yes, it's an impressive piece of music, but what struck me was how easy it was to pinpoint where the various singers and instrument groups were playing.  There was no muddying of the stereo image, either.  It was all very distinct.  Also, I noticed that the amp didn't require any warm up time in order for it to become grain free.  In retrospect, when I first used it for the first time it would have been completely cold.  The second time around it had at least been in standby.

After Ode to Joy I moved on to Carmen.  This recording was processed at a different amplitude, but the recording quality was also vastly superior to the my recording of Ode to Joy.  The sound was utterly spectacular, so much so that I cranked the volume up so that I could fully immerse myself into the operatic experience.  The low level detail, the depth, the realism were all just amazing.  So much so that I felt that I needed to find time to listen to the entire opera from start to finish instead of just listening to my favorite songs.  Never before had I listened to a piece of classical and had my arms flinging around like a conductor, and never had I felt compelled to belt out "Toreadorrrrrrrr!" like I did on this day.

Next up was some more classical from Linn Records, this time a 24/96 recording.  Here's one of the more interesting things I experienced...  Prior to the DR2 I always felt that I could intuitively tell when a file was high resolution.  And just a few weeks before I had convinced myself that a 256k recording done REALLY right can fool my ears into believing that I'm listening to a 16bit track.  This is NOT the case with the DR2.  It was really obvious that the recording was high resolution, and that really changed my perception about high resolution recording.  Similarly, the 256k file that I was giving the nod to a few weeks ago now sounds like a low resolution recording.

After this I wanted to see what the amp could do with other types of music.  Arca's Xen and Mutant are electronic albums that I have a lot of love for.  The recordings are very broad in the frequency spectrum, and the sound design is incredibly complex.  Music and all sorts of industrial sounds zip in and out of the soundscape.  Scratches and bleeps abound.  The compositions sweep from romantic to aggressive from one moment to the next.  What I did not expect to find is how much stereo design has gone into these songs.  The depth, width and height, of the recordings are far greater than I could have imagined.  Listening to them on the DR2 gave me more respect for Arca than I had before.  He's a three dimensional sound wizard!

I decided to end the listening session with some Aldous Harding and Agnes Obel.  Harding has a song could Party that is equal parts loving and painful, thus making it uniquely beautiful IMO.  Well, once again the DR2 absolutely destroyed my previous amp.  The detail was astounding.  Likewise with Obel's Familiar, the various singers were elevated in ways that I hadn't experienced before.

Aldous Harding - Party (the CD version is better)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7r4hjAsGXw

Agnes Obel - Familiar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kYH6XZrIo


Sunday Morning:
The one thing that seemed really obvious at this point was that the DR2 was allowing me to rekindle an appreciation for classical music.  My brain had been whirring about the various recordings that I hadn't listened to in years.  One in particular demanded a listen: Pavane Op 50.  I figured that I would listen to the song at normal volume levels, because I had been wondering if the additional detail I had been hearing was because I had the sound so much higher.  NOPE!  Even when played at this level, details in the recording were laid bare.  It's a beautiful piece of music, and the DR2 played it in such a musical fashion.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDoN40-_C4

Conclusion:
Okay, so yeah the audio snob that I've been conditioned to be over the last 30 years got a royal kicking in the ass by this amp.  My system has never sounded better across every kind of music I threw at this amp.  There's a certain pair of speakers that I've lusted over for about five years, and I swore to myself that it made no sense to upgrade my speakers until I could afford a pair from that particular manufacturer.  Does my system now sound as realistic as that $125k+ plus system?  No.  But after this weekend I don't feel that aspiration to move up to the next level.  I'm happy...  really, really happy with my purchase.  Based on the first weekend of ownership, I 'd say that the DR2 is a very high quality audiophile amp.  It's dramatically better than my prior amp which had all of the hi-fi cosmetics and reviewer respect that one could ask for.

Verdict - Game changer. 

What amp were you using previous to the Emotiva?  I have been looking at the DR-2 or a pair of XPA-1's to upgrade from my XPA-2 Gen 2 so I would be curious to see what you were running before.

[rbk123]

Glad to hear the DR-2 is performing so well for you. Many on here started with a single Emo amp, and then began accumulating more and more Emo amps, and then eventually other Emo toys.

[tchaik]

ordinary,

i am glad to hear of your review of the XPA-DR2 amp. i felt the same way when i put into service my XPR-2's (the grandfathers to the XPA-DR series). A couple differences though... yours is fully differential, whereas mine is not and that is one thing making me consider changing amps. And... yours uses the new 'Switching' power supplies whereas mine uses the traditional toroidal transformer and bank of caps. My guess is the change to the SMPS is still controversial to some and i am glad to hear your comments especially with classical music. no matter what other's think, it is my belief that well recorded classical music is the most revealing of an amps strength and weaknesses. please keep us all updated as to your listening experiences.

tchaik..........

[mack71]

Feb 12, 2018 10:03:30 GMT -5 ordinaryaudiophile said:

Hello All,

I received my XPA-DR2 last Thursday, and I thought that I'd share my experience for those who have been wondering whether or not Emotiva actually does live up to the marketing hype.  

First things first...  When I first unboxed the amp my hi-fi prejudices kicked right in.  I felt that the amp was no where as heavy as a high end amp should be.  There were no heat sinks, the top of the amp was just plain vented metal and thus felt like a massive Japanese-made amp instead of something that I would call an audiophile product.  The rear of the amp looked really industrial though - I don't think I've ever seen binding posts as big as these!  The manual didn't lend much confidence, either.  It looks like it's the manual they have been shipping with every Gen 3 amp, as I didn't see any info on the DR models.  Also, I spotted a spelling error... Gasp!

Thursday Night:
The first time I plugged it up and turned it on, the amber light started to flash.  I turned it off and on again, and all appears to be fine.  For the first five minutes of playing the sound was a bit grainy in the upper frequencies.  But, somewhere around 7-9 minutes the grain was completely gone.  I guess it needed to warm up.  I ran through a few tracks for the next 25 minutes, and I was really impressed with how clean the amp sounds.  It drove my PSB Platinum T8's effortlessly, and I could swear that I was hearing details that I hadn't heard before.  Still, I tempered my enthusiasm for the next listening session.

Saturday Afternoon:
Okay, so it was now time to hear what the amp can really do.  I turned it on, and no lights were flashing (good sign!).  I started to play Ode to Joy, purely because I had listened to it earlier in the day while exercising.  Yes, it's an impressive piece of music, but what struck me was how easy it was to pinpoint where the various singers and instrument groups were playing.  There was no muddying of the stereo image, either.  It was all very distinct.  Also, I noticed that the amp didn't require any warm up time in order for it to become grain free.  In retrospect, when I first used it for the first time it would have been completely cold.  The second time around it had at least been in standby.

After Ode to Joy I moved on to Carmen.  This recording was processed at a different amplitude, but the recording quality was also vastly superior to the my recording of Ode to Joy.  The sound was utterly spectacular, so much so that I cranked the volume up so that I could fully immerse myself into the operatic experience.  The low level detail, the depth, the realism were all just amazing.  So much so that I felt that I needed to find time to listen to the entire opera from start to finish instead of just listening to my favorite songs.  Never before had I listened to a piece of classical and had my arms flinging around like a conductor, and never had I felt compelled to belt out "Toreadorrrrrrrr!" like I did on this day.

Next up was some more classical from Linn Records, this time a 24/96 recording.  Here's one of the more interesting things I experienced...  Prior to the DR2 I always felt that I could intuitively tell when a file was high resolution.  And just a few weeks before I had convinced myself that a 256k recording done REALLY right can fool my ears into believing that I'm listening to a 16bit track.  This is NOT the case with the DR2.  It was really obvious that the recording was high resolution, and that really changed my perception about high resolution recording.  Similarly, the 256k file that I was giving the nod to a few weeks ago now sounds like a low resolution recording.

After this I wanted to see what the amp could do with other types of music.  Arca's Xen and Mutant are electronic albums that I have a lot of love for.  The recordings are very broad in the frequency spectrum, and the sound design is incredibly complex.  Music and all sorts of industrial sounds zip in and out of the soundscape.  Scratches and bleeps abound.  The compositions sweep from romantic to aggressive from one moment to the next.  What I did not expect to find is how much stereo design has gone into these songs.  The depth, width and height, of the recordings are far greater than I could have imagined.  Listening to them on the DR2 gave me more respect for Arca than I had before.  He's a three dimensional sound wizard!

I decided to end the listening session with some Aldous Harding and Agnes Obel.  Harding has a song could Party that is equal parts loving and painful, thus making it uniquely beautiful IMO.  Well, once again the DR2 absolutely destroyed my previous amp.  The detail was astounding.  Likewise with Obel's Familiar, the various singers were elevated in ways that I hadn't experienced before.

Aldous Harding - Party (the CD version is better)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7r4hjAsGXw

Agnes Obel - Familiar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kYH6XZrIo


Sunday Morning:
The one thing that seemed really obvious at this point was that the DR2 was allowing me to rekindle an appreciation for classical music.  My brain had been whirring about the various recordings that I hadn't listened to in years.  One in particular demanded a listen: Pavane Op 50.  I figured that I would listen to the song at normal volume levels, because I had been wondering if the additional detail I had been hearing was because I had the sound so much higher.  NOPE!  Even when played at this level, details in the recording were laid bare.  It's a beautiful piece of music, and the DR2 played it in such a musical fashion.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDoN40-_C4

Conclusion:
Okay, so yeah the audio snob that I've been conditioned to be over the last 30 years got a royal kicking in the ass by this amp.  My system has never sounded better across every kind of music I threw at this amp.  There's a certain pair of speakers that I've lusted over for about five years, and I swore to myself that it made no sense to upgrade my speakers until I could afford a pair from that particular manufacturer.  Does my system now sound as realistic as that $125k+ plus system?  No.  But after this weekend I don't feel that aspiration to move up to the next level.  I'm happy...  really, really happy with my purchase.  Based on the first weekend of ownership, I 'd say that the DR2 is a very high quality audiophile amp.  It's dramatically better than my prior amp which had all of the hi-fi cosmetics and reviewer respect that one could ask for.

Verdict - Game changer. 

What's your system?

[klinemj]

Welcome to the Lounge - and I enjoyed reading your review.

Mark

[Dan Laufman]

Hi ordinary,
Man, I am so happy to hear your comments on your new DR-2! It made my day!! Thank you for giving us a try.

The DR Series amplifiers ARE serious “audiophile grade” products and I’m very pleased to see that you are putting it through its paces. IMO, the new Gen 3 amplifiers are some of the best gear we’ve ever made.

I am sure it will bring you many years of listening pleasure.

Welcome to the family!
Cheers,
Big Dan

P.S. where’s the typo??

[ordinaryaudiophile]

A few folks have asked what gear I have/had.  The previous amp was a Parasound Halo A21 (which died a horrible death).

The other gear is:

* Mac Mini running Roon into an Oppo 205 via USB (I previously had a Meridian G68)
* Oppo 205 via balanced cables directly into the DR2
* Kimber Kable 8TC bi-wired into PSB Platinum T8s

It's a dedicated audio room (no windows)
Sound panelling by Primacoustic

Later this year I'll be replacing the home theatre amps with Emotiva.

[rbk123]

Feb 12, 2018 14:10:55 GMT -5 ordinaryaudiophile said:

Later this year I'll be replacing the home theatre amps with Emotiva.

That's the standard pattern around here.

[mack71]

Feb 12, 2018 14:10:55 GMT -5 ordinaryaudiophile said:

A few folks have asked what gear I have/had.  The previous amp was a Parasound Halo A21 (which died a horrible death).

The other gear is:

* Mac Mini running Roon into an Oppo 205 via USB (I previously had a Meridian G68)
* Oppo 205 via balanced cables directly into the DR2
* Kimber Kable 8TC bi-wired into PSB Platinum T8s

It's a dedicated audio room (no windows)
Sound panelling by Primacoustic

Later this year I'll be replacing the home theatre amps with Emotiva.

I was hoping you had some experience with other Emo models. In any case, a very optimistic opinion. I am waiting for further reviews from users who had the Xpa and Xpr models

[ordinaryaudiophile]

Nope, this is my first time with Emotiva, so I can't compare it to other models.

[ordinaryaudiophile]

Feb 12, 2018 13:48:32 GMT -5 Dan Laufman said:

Hi ordinary,
Man, I am so happy to hear your comments on your new DR-2! It made my day!! Thank you for giving us a try.

The DR Series amplifiers ARE serious “audiophile grade” products and I’m very pleased to see that you are putting it through its paces. IMO, the new Gen 3 amplifiers are some of the best gear we’ve ever made.

I am sure it will bring you many years of listening pleasure.

Welcome to the family!
Cheers,
Big Dan

P.S. where’s the typo??

Page four: About this amp.  Look for two instances of "youre".

Congrats on setting such a great precedent for amplification!  You've saved me at least $2k!

[simpleman68]

Feb 12, 2018 13:48:32 GMT -5 Dan Laufman said:

Hi ordinary,
Man, I am so happy to hear your comments on your new DR-2! It made my day!! Thank you for giving us a try.

The DR Series amplifiers ARE serious “audiophile grade” products and I’m very pleased to see that you are putting it through its paces. IMO, the new Gen 3 amplifiers are some of the best gear we’ve ever made.

Agreed, particularly since you're comparing it to the Parasound A21; an amp I'm very fond of and sets the bar quite high IMO.
I've never heard their Halo series mate poorly with other speakers.

Then again, the only time I sell my Emo amps is to upgrade to newer models.
Still breaking in my XPA6 Gen 3 and it's been most excellent.

Have been looking at the new XDR series to power LCR now that the XPA6 has gone to Surround and Atmos duty.
Scott

[ordinaryaudiophile]

Yeah, the DR2 is superior to the A21 in every way I can think of- shockingly so, actually.

[audiophilewannabe]

Feb 12, 2018 15:45:00 GMT -5 rbk123 said:

Feb 12, 2018 14:10:55 GMT -5 ordinaryaudiophile said:

Later this year I'll be replacing the home theatre amps with Emotiva.

That's the standard pattern around here.

I can't tell you how much I appreciated your review... especially once learning you (too) had Parasound Halo A21's to compare to.  At one point, (back when I could afford such luxuries) I had a pair of A21s  bridged mono each driving one of my B&W 802Ds (which for me were a major investment).

I am now in a vastly more "bang for the buck" time of life and so recently purchased a pair of Magnepan 1.7is  which as everyone knows need "lots of clean power" and am wondering if the new DR2s might not foot the bill??

Any thoughts?

[widespreadpanic]

Howdy Ordinary. I’m excited to have read your, (note the spelling), post! I have always liked tapping my feet to a good beat. When I was in junior/senior high my neighbor/friend had what I called a bad ass system... and a fooseball table. He had a Yamaha separate component rack system, with equalizer and everything with a pair of Klipsch Heresy’s. This was 30 years ago. I lived at the end of a cul de sac and he lived in a house that was on the cross street that went past my street. One night I was watching tv. The doors were closed, the a/c was on, I could hear the tv I was watching while sitting in the living room on the sofa AND I could here Jimmy Bianchi’s stereo jamming Stevie Ray Vaughn! Holy Moses!!! I looked out the window, his front door was closed! I thought to myself, “ I’m going to have a system bad ass like that one day!” A couple or 3 years later I got a pair of Klipsch kg 4.2’s, a Marantz PM 700AV and a Marantz Synthesized Stereo Tuner ST50. These were about $2000 and that was a lot of money for me back then and is now as well. Later came 4 Klipsch kg 1.5’s and a Klipsch KMC center channel speaker and a Denon AVR 591. I have a Pioneer PD4700 sr that my girlfriend gave me for Christmas when I was a senior in high school, ‘89/‘90. My stepfather gave me his old Kenwood KR7600 which sounds pretty good but there are several pots that are scratchy, including the volume, and I’ve tried cleaning them but it only worked a little bit, so I slid it under a couch. The now defunct and only brick and mortar audio place where I bought those pieces from had nice things in it. Macintosh, Denon, paradigm, B&W and others that I could only smile, drool and dream about considering. The Heresy’s were out of budget of course and I should have been patient and saved more money and gotten them but we all know how eager young men are. Well, here I am, about to be 46 in 3 weeks and my second XPA-DR1 is being put together right now and is the last component in my stereo upgrade that I have made. For close to a year now I have been saving money and reading about what people like you, “audiophiles”, I think you call yourselves, say about audio equipment. I am not afforded the opportunity to become discernible as to what good quality audio equipment is. Maybe someday I will but now I MUST rely on you people to make my “final decision”. If you want to learn about shooting pool, I’m your guy. I’ve been playing pool seriously for over 20 years. I worked in a pool hall where Reed Pierce played and have learned a lot. You people know the technical aspects of audio and I know the technical aspects of billiards. If you walked in to my pool hall and wanted to learn about pool I would be totally confident on putting you on the right path and that is the confidence I have put in the audio gurus’ posts that I’ve been reading. So, after all that time and patience listening to audio gurus like yourself, I put all my smiling, drooling and dreaming into this system; EMOTIVA XSP 1, ERC 3, 2 XPA-DR1’s and Magnepan 1.7i’s. I will probably never be able to do any further upgrades from this point so it is important to me that I am getting the best quality product I can for the money I’m spending because I’m OCD about quality in a purchase of a product that will be utilized for decades...cars, furniture, tv, appliances, etc. Oh, and of course I didn’t know I would need upgraded connectors and speaker wires, which I have done, I just assumed I could use the 50’ spool of speaker wire and rca cables I bought from Radio Shack 28 years ago! I’ve had to get each item one at a time as my credit card has a small limit and the last mono amp is the last item. Holy Moses I can’t wait!!! Everything is still in its respective box and when that second DR1 gets here I will be like a 5 year old kid on Christmas morning! Like I said before, I may never be able to discern what good quality audio components truly are but your, again note the spelling, post has given me a sigh of relief. And yes, I do yearn to be able to critique audio equipment.

[assy74]

I think the new class D amps will change the industry.......
Not surprised the new Dr- series kicks parasound halo A21 ass!!!!
The right comparison would probably be the JC1 which is a seriously good amp
Have been thinking of xpa1 for a while now...... But been waiting for the dr.....
Question now is dr1's or a dr2
And maybe switch the xpr5 with dr2 and dr3 somewhere ahead.....
Good times ahead

[mack71]

Feb 14, 2018 2:09:22 GMT -5 assy74 said:

I think the new class D amps will change the industry.......
Not surprised the new Dr- series kicks parasound halo A21 ass!!!!
The right comparison would probably be the JC1 which is a seriously good amp
Have been thinking of xpa1 for a while now...... But been waiting for the dr.....
Question now is dr1's or a dr2
And maybe switch the xpr5 with dr2 and dr3 somewhere ahead.....
Good times ahead

Time will tell. I am asking for more opinions, especially from users who can compare new DRs to older generations of Emo.

[2001passvar]

Feb 14, 2018 7:40:15 GMT -5 mack71 said:

Feb 14, 2018 2:09:22 GMT -5 assy74 said:

I think the new class D amps will change the industry.......
Not surprised the new Dr- series kicks parasound halo A21 ass!!!!
The right comparison would probably be the JC1 which is a seriously good amp
Have been thinking of xpa1 for a while now...... But been waiting for the dr.....
Question now is dr1's or a dr2
And maybe switch the xpr5 with dr2 and dr3 somewhere ahead.....
Good times ahead

Time will tell. I am asking for more opinions, especially from users who can compare new DRs to older generations of Emo.

I had a pair of XPA-1 Gen 1 mono blocks and have replaced them with an XPA DR-2. For me in my system, the difference is one of brightness and slam. The XPA-1's were brighter and had slightly more slam, the DR-2 to my ears is warmer and dare I say more musical with my speakers, I prefer the DR-2 for two channel music, my main focus. I think the DR-2 images a little better also. I'm sure this is largely system dependent, but my speakers are pretty revealing and work really well with a warmer sounding amp. I'm happy with my purchase so far... about a week into it. Hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to really put it through its paces.