XRT- 6.2 Review

[Deleted]

Just received my XRT 6.2's today. They are currently being put through their paces.. Will report back in a few days.

Unfortunately, one of the speakers has some imperfections on the top so I am dealing with Emo to rectify the problem.

[geebo]

Congrats! Looking forward to hearing your impression.

[Pauly]

Oh come on Neekos, what a tease! Didn't even show an out of the box pic! lol

[Deleted]

Just for you Pauly...

[dcg44s]

Looking forward to hearing how they sound.

[RadTech]

Congrats! So how they sounding neekos?

[Deleted]

Emotiva must have taken feedback from their customers in designing the X-Reference line of speakers. I have owned the ERM-1, ERM 6.3 and ERM 6.2's. They always sounded laid back, warm and after extended listening, a tad uninviting. So, it makes sense that the X-Ref line sounds night and day different from the Reference line.

I've had the speakers for a few days now and at first, they sounded overly bright and disjointed. It's as though there was a suck-out in the midrange portion of the spectrum. Break in time is essential with these speakers. I've logged in about 50-60 hours so far and they sound much better than at first. I was lucky enough to have my Magnepan 1.7's for about 6 months before having to sell them for a move that is coming up and because I won't have a dedicated room such as my current setup. The Maggies spoiled me in the sense that they portray voices and instruments in an intoxicating manner. Going from the Maggies to the XRT's was a revelation in many ways, but most of my comparison will be between the Emo lines.

On certain discs, the XRT's although satisfying, sounded bright on occassion. On Chris Botti's "When I fall in love", when he hits certain notes, they are sharp and a bit on the edge of "hot" in the treble area. This is a recording that on the Maggies, it was portrayed with ease and lucidity. With the ERM's, they presented the track with a semi homogenized sound, although satisfying, just not quite up to the XRT's and certainly not the Maggies. With this recording, the ERM's were row 20, the Maggies row 10 and the XRT's row 5, front and center. The XRT's had liveliness and energy where the ERM's could not match. Although this is a good cd, I don't consider all the tracks as reference level recordings. In that regard, the XRT's presented the old "garbage in, garbage out" theory. In a sense, the XRT's are revealing and neutral . Feed them good recordings and they give you solid enjoyable sound, feed them mediocre material, and that's what you get.

On Tommy Emmanuel's "Center Stage", the presentation is very "you are there". On track 7, "and so it goes", the reverberation of the sound in the live session is stunning. Strings sound like strings, tapping on wood is as such, everything is alive and for a lack of better word, "organic". It sounds like a live event. Only the Maggie's are better in this regard. The ERM's did fine with this cd, but never moved me the way the XRT's did. Diana Krall's "Why should I care" is a wonderful and melodic piece that I can listen to over and over. The placement of the instruments in space and scale is excellent through the XRT's. No chance of any harshness with this disc, the XRT's evidently thrive on complex and well recorded material.

All throughout the day, they revealed in my collection the good from the bad. Something the ERM's could not do and to a lesser extent the Maggies. I never could pin point a weakness in the Maggies. They are such incredible speakers, I never felt a need for more from them other than low end grunt, which they gave, albeit not utterly visceral like dynamic speakers. The XRT's can outright boogie with the right material. Low end sounded nice and tight without over-bloating.

I believe Emotiva has a hit with the XRT 6.2's. Word of caution, they are revealing of the material played through them. I have an all Emotiva system, and the synergy was excellent. The XRT's will reveal weaknesses in the source, pre/pro, etc...If your system already errors on the "lively" side, the XRT's will not be your cup of tea. If you have a neutral sounding system, the XRT's will do your music collection justice.

More break in will occur and follow up will ensue. So far, very promising.

Music used:

[FLcanuck]

Great initial impressions Neekos. Very interesting and informative!

How is the imaging and soundstage of the XRTs? How do these qualities compare to the ERMs and to the Maggies?

Have you tried the tweeters to the outside?

[Deleted]

Imaging and soundstage is very good. They don't necessarily throw a huge depth if it's not in the recording. They are definitely more upfront and immediate than either the ERM's or Maggies. The ERM's were ok in imaging and soundstaging but the XRT's are better. The Maggies are in another league when it comes to imaging and soundstage, but they are also more than double the cost of the XRT's.

I haven't tried the tweeters on the outside, but I plan to.

[asterisk]

I'm looking forward to a pair of these as my mains , want to run them full range without a sub in place of my bookshelf/sub setup I have now that does not sound bad but I miss fuller sound of towers they replaced

[RadTech]

Thanks neekos! Excellent review. They sound as if they may be similar to my Polks.

[knucklehead]

Neekos - as we've come to expect - that was a very nice writeup.

Makes me want to part with my 8.3s - I hate this hobby!

Actually I'm quite happy with the 8.3s and have no plans to replace them any time soon. Having added the HK990 to the mix adds power and dynamics to them that the UPA-7 never could.

But those new XRT-6.2s look mighty nice!

[Deleted]

Hey KHJ:

Thanks for the kind words. I would assume the ERT- 8.3's have stronger bass than the XRT's due to their larger woofers, but damn, these XRT's are impressive on the bass. The biggest difference is the new tweeter. It is much more lively and engaging than what I remember of the ERM's.

They X-Ref definitely sing with the XPA amps.

Take care

[knucklehead]

Tweeters is where it's at when it comes to audio - for me anyway.
I may spring for a pair of those 6.1s just to try out those new tweeters. First I need to recover from buying the HK 990. What a beast!

I was quite happy with the Infinity speakers I had for a long time - Interlude IL40's. The Infinity CMMD tweeter is IMO as good or better than the Emotiva reference tweeter - not by much. But the mid/low bass it's all Emo. Very good - very accurate mids/lows. When I up the volume the 8.3s have it all over any Infinity speaker I've owned.

[roadrunner]

I spent a lot of hours at Emofest listening to the new XRT 6.2 towers with a wide assortment of well mastered HDCD albums specifically to see how they compared to the ERT-8.3 speakers. I also checked the same CDs with the 8.3s to reinforce my two years of daily listening to them. I thought the XRT 6.2 where very good speakers and should be very successful for Emotiva. However, I found the ERT-8.3 speakers sounded better in every metric you can compare. I agree that the XRT had more emphasis in the treble range, but the treble did not have tone and texture in the treble range that the 8.3s have. It did not sound as life-like as the 8.3s. When listening to piano music, the XRT did not have the clarity of the "attack" and "decay" of musical tones when the hammer strikes the sound board. The 8.3 just sounded like it reproduced this sound more convincingly in mimicing the sound of the real life instruments.

Some people like strong treble. I prefer balanced with all the other tones that are being played without over emphasis of any area. It should only sound airy and shimmery if that is really what is contained in the recording. The XRT 6.2 is very good, but to my ears it cannot compete with the ERT-8.3. Not only do the ERT-8.3 speaker sound more life-like, they have far superior build quality. Do a Knock test on the enclosures and tell me what you hear. Reference Series speaker enclosures are very solid and very well braced.

[Deleted]

I can't compare the 8.3's to the XRT 6.2's because I've never listened to the 8.3's. All I will say is that my experience with the ERM1's and the ERM 6.2's compared to the the X-Ref was completely different.

The reference line never fully did it for me. Your mileage obviously varied.

[Deleted]

More breaking in has occured and my impressions are still positive.

What is impressive is the amount of articulation, sound, dynamics that the XRT's exhibit.

For someone looking for tower speakers in the 1k range, and at the intro prices, these are seductive.

[LCSeminole]

Nov 16, 2011 22:22:32 GMT -5 roadrunner said:

I spent a lot of hours at Emofest listening to the new XRT 6.2 towers with a wide assortment of well mastered HDCD albums specifically to see how they compared to the ERT-8.3 speakers. I also checked the same CDs with the 8.3s to reinforce my two years of daily listening to them. I thought the XRT 6.2 where very good speakers and should be very successful for Emotiva. However, I found the ERT-8.3 speakers sounded better in every metric you can compare. I agree that the XRT had more emphasis in the treble range, but the treble did not have tone and texture in the treble range that the 8.3s have. It did not sound as life-like as the 8.3s. When listening to piano music, the XRT did not have the clarity of the "attack" and "decay" of musical tones when the hammer strikes the sound board. The 8.3 just sounded like it reproduced this sound more convincingly in mimicing the sound of the real life instruments.

Some people like strong treble. I prefer balanced with all the other tones that are being played without over emphasis of any area. It should only sound airy and shimmery if that is really what is contained in the recording. The XRT 6.2 is very good, but to my ears it cannot compete with the ERT-8.3. Not only do the ERT-8.3 speaker sound more life-like, they have far superior build quality. Do a Knock test on the enclosures and tell me what you hear. Reference Series speaker enclosures are very solid and very well braced.

Didn't Big Dan say that the obvious difference between these two lines would be that the X-Ref's would be more full range and more an all-round theater/music speaker. It's early on and I've only read "neekos" review, but it sounds like the X-Ref line will be quite successful.

[LCSeminole]

Nov 19, 2011 10:30:04 GMT -5 neekos said:

More breaking in has occured and my impressions are still positive.

What is impressive is the amount of articulation, sound, dynamics that the XRT's exhibit.

For someone looking for tower speakers in the 1k range, and at the intro prices, these are seductive.

neekos, I'll be interested to see what another 100 hours will do for these speakers. Please keep on giving us an update, as it sounds like the X-Ref's will get better with time.

[Deleted]

thanks LC, will do. ;D