Post by chrisk41 on Mar 19, 2011 11:41:31 GMT -5
Just got my new XPA-2 last night and wanted to share a few impressions.
First of all I am using the XPA-2 to power my Klipsch RF-83’s that have 100 db/watt sensitivity. Before the XPA-2 arrived I was using my Onkyo TX-SR806 to power all five of my speakers. Since the 83’s are so sensitive I wasn’t sure how much of a performance increase I was going to notice, unless I drove them to ear bleeding levels. I was also worried because at -20 db I was already getting a significant amount of white noise at my seating position during completely silent passages using the Onkyo. I had heard that the XPA’s high gain and the Klipsch’s high sensitivity could cause this problem to be much worse.
Now to my impressions. Even though the 83’s are very sensitive, the XPA brought them to life! Even at low levels (-40 db) the 83’s forcefully brought out kick drums and other low notes that I honestly didn’t even know where there before when they were driven with the Onkyo, even the high notes became much clearer and more defined.
Next I tried to see how the white noise did. I turned the system up to reference levels with a song that has a pause of complete silence in it. When the song went to silence the three remaining speakers driven by the Onkyo displayed quite a bit of noise. When I put my ear next to the 83’s they were dead silent. I would also like to add that they XPA was able to drive these speakers to reference levels without ever displaying more than three bars on its meters, and only occasionally would the third bar be displayed.
The WAF was the last test I put the XPA through. I turned on a song that she was familiar with and only played it at -40 db. It was awesome to see her face light up, and her first words were, “This is awesome. I can’t believe how much of a difference this made! I was really worried this was going to be another one of those really big differences that only you could hear.” Needless to say that left me wondering what other differences she was talking about!
Sorry for the long post, but needless to say I am very happy with the XPA and hope to order an XPA-3 as soon as they become available (even my wife is looking forward to getting the XPA-3 now). It has been a long time since a product has exceeded my expectations this, and left me with no regrets what so ever.
First of all I am using the XPA-2 to power my Klipsch RF-83’s that have 100 db/watt sensitivity. Before the XPA-2 arrived I was using my Onkyo TX-SR806 to power all five of my speakers. Since the 83’s are so sensitive I wasn’t sure how much of a performance increase I was going to notice, unless I drove them to ear bleeding levels. I was also worried because at -20 db I was already getting a significant amount of white noise at my seating position during completely silent passages using the Onkyo. I had heard that the XPA’s high gain and the Klipsch’s high sensitivity could cause this problem to be much worse.
Now to my impressions. Even though the 83’s are very sensitive, the XPA brought them to life! Even at low levels (-40 db) the 83’s forcefully brought out kick drums and other low notes that I honestly didn’t even know where there before when they were driven with the Onkyo, even the high notes became much clearer and more defined.
Next I tried to see how the white noise did. I turned the system up to reference levels with a song that has a pause of complete silence in it. When the song went to silence the three remaining speakers driven by the Onkyo displayed quite a bit of noise. When I put my ear next to the 83’s they were dead silent. I would also like to add that they XPA was able to drive these speakers to reference levels without ever displaying more than three bars on its meters, and only occasionally would the third bar be displayed.
The WAF was the last test I put the XPA through. I turned on a song that she was familiar with and only played it at -40 db. It was awesome to see her face light up, and her first words were, “This is awesome. I can’t believe how much of a difference this made! I was really worried this was going to be another one of those really big differences that only you could hear.” Needless to say that left me wondering what other differences she was talking about!
Sorry for the long post, but needless to say I am very happy with the XPA and hope to order an XPA-3 as soon as they become available (even my wife is looking forward to getting the XPA-3 now). It has been a long time since a product has exceeded my expectations this, and left me with no regrets what so ever.
