Post by paintedklown on Nov 9, 2010 1:38:51 GMT -5
Hello all,
As you all (probably) know I ordered up an XPA-5 to take advantage of the savings during the current holiday sale.
Well it arrived today and I have it hooked to my Rotel processor that does Dolby pro logic only.
Anyway, I have done a tiny bit of preliminary listening so far, nothing extremely critical as of yet. I had to hook my B&Ws up "regular" instead of bi-wired like normal and I didn't feel like getting the tape measure out to insure they were placed exactly as they were prior to hooking up the new amp. I will get to that soon though...
;D
First thoughts...well in comparing it to my UPA-1 mono block amps, I have to say that I am VERY pleased thus far. One thing I found particularly interesting was the seemingly endless amount of headroom this amp had when running in stereo mode.
I kept turning it up and it kept getting louder, without stressing or breaking a sweat at all. In fact I could get it a good deal louder than my UPA-1s without feeling like it was stressing the amp at all. ;D
In this regard, I have to admit, it beats my little mono blocks...it kind of saddens me to say that, (really) as I have always loved the UPA-1 amps but I did feel that I could find their limits...with the XPA-5 I don't think I really reached that point (yet anyway) while playing a stereo CD.
Just to do it, and because I have it hooked up, I played CDs in pro logic mode to see how they sounded. I must admit that I kind of liked it... It's not musically accurate by any means but it did add a bit of a "fun factor" to listening. One thing I felt was quite striking was the amount of power available to my center and surround channels. I am used to my mains getting good power, but I have never heard such power on everything else. It was quite impressive to say the least. I cannot imagine any receiver being able to really push your speakers like an XPA-5 will. 
As far as sound characteristics go, I am still up in the air. At first I thought the XPA-5 sounded "fuller" and maybe a tad bit "richer" than the UPA-1s but when I left, then came back home and popped in some Norah (that I am very familiar with) I noticed that the classic Emo sonic signature I am used to is still there. I think sometimes swapping gear can have a bit of a mental effect initially. We think it sounds different, and so it does.
I have not completely decided how I feel about this quite yet.
Noise levels are just a hair higher on the XPA-5. When in stereo mode and using my UPA-1s I can pause a CD and turn the volume all the way up and hear NOTHING from my sitting position. In fact I had to get within inches of the tweeters to hear any audible noise. When doing this same test with the XPA-5 I did hear a tiny bit of noise in stereo mode, volume all the way up and CD on pause. In pro-logic mode there was so much noise it sounded as if I was in a "white noise blizzard" I do not think that is the fault of the XPA-5 though. I am blaming the noise on the Rotels processing, I just think if it was the amp then it would be noisy even in stereo mode...and its not.
I will post more thoughts as I continue to listen and evaluate over the next several days.
Thanks for reading. -Dave
As you all (probably) know I ordered up an XPA-5 to take advantage of the savings during the current holiday sale.
Well it arrived today and I have it hooked to my Rotel processor that does Dolby pro logic only.
Anyway, I have done a tiny bit of preliminary listening so far, nothing extremely critical as of yet. I had to hook my B&Ws up "regular" instead of bi-wired like normal and I didn't feel like getting the tape measure out to insure they were placed exactly as they were prior to hooking up the new amp. I will get to that soon though...
;DFirst thoughts...well in comparing it to my UPA-1 mono block amps, I have to say that I am VERY pleased thus far. One thing I found particularly interesting was the seemingly endless amount of headroom this amp had when running in stereo mode.
I kept turning it up and it kept getting louder, without stressing or breaking a sweat at all. In fact I could get it a good deal louder than my UPA-1s without feeling like it was stressing the amp at all. ;DIn this regard, I have to admit, it beats my little mono blocks...it kind of saddens me to say that, (really) as I have always loved the UPA-1 amps but I did feel that I could find their limits...with the XPA-5 I don't think I really reached that point (yet anyway) while playing a stereo CD.
Just to do it, and because I have it hooked up, I played CDs in pro logic mode to see how they sounded. I must admit that I kind of liked it...
It's not musically accurate by any means but it did add a bit of a "fun factor" to listening. One thing I felt was quite striking was the amount of power available to my center and surround channels. I am used to my mains getting good power, but I have never heard such power on everything else. It was quite impressive to say the least. I cannot imagine any receiver being able to really push your speakers like an XPA-5 will. 
As far as sound characteristics go, I am still up in the air. At first I thought the XPA-5 sounded "fuller" and maybe a tad bit "richer" than the UPA-1s but when I left, then came back home and popped in some Norah (that I am very familiar with) I noticed that the classic Emo sonic signature I am used to is still there. I think sometimes swapping gear can have a bit of a mental effect initially. We think it sounds different, and so it does.
I have not completely decided how I feel about this quite yet. Noise levels are just a hair higher on the XPA-5. When in stereo mode and using my UPA-1s I can pause a CD and turn the volume all the way up and hear NOTHING from my sitting position. In fact I had to get within inches of the tweeters to hear any audible noise. When doing this same test with the XPA-5 I did hear a tiny bit of noise in stereo mode, volume all the way up and CD on pause. In pro-logic mode there was so much noise it sounded as if I was in a "white noise blizzard"
I do not think that is the fault of the XPA-5 though. I am blaming the noise on the Rotels processing, I just think if it was the amp then it would be noisy even in stereo mode...and its not. I will post more thoughts as I continue to listen and evaluate over the next several days.
Thanks for reading. -Dave
To be quite honest, I was surprised at how much the XPA-5 improves the clarity of dialog in movies. I am the kind of guy that HAS to hear every syllable of dialog spoken and I do NOT want to strain to have to hear it all. With the Rotel/XPA-5 combo, all of the dialog and sound effects were easily heard and finely detailed. Nice, very nice. 
