Erwin.BE
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It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 10, 2012 13:47:15 GMT -5
An update: I connected the power via an adapter to my EU net. But the adaptor is useless. I thought something was wrong since I didn't get any clicks or lights or nothing, but rocking the plug in the adaptor did switch the amp on. Beautifull blue LED lights!
I will cut the cord (since it's quite heavy I like to recuperate it) and connect a heavy duty EU plug on it and report later....
Happy weekend! Off to see some New Order nearby... The Beach Boys were there too earlier and they were awesome, with 14 guys on stage: wall of sound, sounded like heaven...
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Erwin.BE
Emo VIPs
It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 11, 2012 6:03:38 GMT -5
I ended up getting only a pro-grade rubber plug since I did not want to wast the thick Emo power cord. I've cut off the USA plug and replaced it with the EU plug. All is well, it plays perfect.  One thing I noticed is that the set-up isn't playing all that loud. This is the (test-) set-up: iPod touch (favourite lossless 16/44 music, volume to max, shuffle) on Pure i20 dock > Emo coaxial > XDA-1> Emo XLR pair> XPR-5 (ch2& ch4)> Jamo R909 Even with volume of the XDA-1 @ 80 (max), it is plenty loud, but not so loud it's untolerable for a few minutes. Certainly not concert level. The LED's only lit up to the 3rd level. Now, I believe the output voltage of the XDA-1 is only 1V? While my dayly DAC-preamp, the Weiss DAC2 has four preset output voltages of 1.35/1.78/2.74/5.48 Volt! Add to this the gain of the XPR-5 is a "normal" 29dB, while the XPA's are very hot @ 32dB Can someone confirm the low output voltage of the XDA-1 is indeed why it isn't as loud as my Weiss/XPA/Jamo set? I could ofcourse test the Weiss with the XPR-5, but that's a bit of bother. |
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Erwin.BE
Emo VIPs
It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 11, 2012 6:20:04 GMT -5
FORGET ABOUT THE LOUDNESS! THE iPOD WAS NOT ON MAX VOLUME AFTERALL! I HAVE TO SHOUT SINCE THE MUSIC IS VERY VERY LOUD RIGHT NOW! ;D |
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Post by garbulky on Aug 11, 2012 6:26:30 GMT -5
haha!!
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Post by garbulky on Aug 11, 2012 7:51:49 GMT -5
BTW, I believe the output voltage of the xda-1 can hit 12 V peaks according to secrets of home theater.
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Post by roadrunner on Aug 11, 2012 9:00:51 GMT -5
Erwin I was about to ask you if you had the Ipod volume maxed out. Have you used your SPL meter to see just how loud the XPR-5 really is outputting? I have noticed with good high powered amps that they are so clean at high levels that they don't sound "loud" compared to less powerful amps at the same SPL reading. The downside of this is you can damage your ears since you don't perceive it is actually louder than you think. How does the sound quality compare to your XPA power amps? Emo's previous H amps had a more "refined" sound -- subtle but audible? Have you adjusted the "scale" sensitivity of the LED meters? Looking forward to your full review.  |
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Erwin.BE
Emo VIPs
It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 11, 2012 12:49:22 GMT -5
Erwin I was about to ask you if you had the Ipod volume maxed out. Have you used your SPL meter to see just how loud the XPR-5 really is outputting? I have noticed with good high powered amps that they are so clean at high levels that they don't sound "loud" compared to less powerful amps at the same SPL reading. The downside of this is you can damage your ears since you don't perceive it is actually louder than you think. How does the sound quality compare to your XPA power amps? Emo's previous H amps had a more "refined" sound -- subtle but audible? Have you adjusted the "scale" sensitivity of the LED meters? Looking forward to your full review. Haven't got a SPL meter, but I will get one sooner or later... And you are correct, even with the XDA-1 @ 50, it doesn't seem thàt loud. You just get a nice feeling of good energetic and clean music. Until you want to say a word to one another, then you notice you have to shout and still can't understand one another... The Jamo's are capable of filling a very big room with big sound and the XPR-5, like the XPA-1's, doesn't break a sweat! I have listened for a few hours now (iPod in shuffle mode, only room for my favourite tracks on it in AIFF and ALAC). I cannot say I hear any difference so far compared to the XPA-1. It's no ABX test ofcourse. And I use Amarra player software on the other set. Amarra with equalization in "default" preset is my usual playback. Nonetheless, the XPR-5 sounds perfect to me without it. Can I actually adjust the "dancing" of the LED's? |
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Post by The Mad Norseman on Aug 11, 2012 15:19:05 GMT -5
Glad to hear that your XPR-5 survived that awful trip over the pond!
It looked pretty suspect when we all saw your photos of the box and its inner protective styrofoam protectors all bashed up...yikes!
I wouldn't expect it to sound much, if any, different from the XPA-1s though.
Beach Boys in town, huh? I've been thinking of getting their remastered 'greatest hits'.
Coldplay is here for two days (what a great group!), and finishing up their current tour in St. Paul with these two last concerts. Good stuff!
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Erwin.BE
Emo VIPs
It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 11, 2012 19:25:01 GMT -5
Beach Boys in town, huh? I've been thinking of getting their remastered 'greatest hits'. Everybody heard of the Beach Boys ofcourse. Pet Sounds is a brilliant album and then there's all the hits! But these guys are ancient. And I saw Brian Wilson on "Later... with Jools Holland" and that wasn't a very "dynamic" performance. So my expectations were not high. But boy were we in for a treat in Lokeren! The old guys were complemented by young Turks, fourteen men in total on stage. The drummer was almost as energetic as Animal from the Muppets and he got two additional percussionists helping out when called for. Lots of guitars, too. And the Boys sang breathtakingly good. All the hits were performed and some Pet Sounds and Smile stuff. Everybody in the audience danced with the music, which I never saw before here in Lokeren. This was one of their fifty "fifttieth anniversary" gigs and the only one in Benelux. Just our luck to be there. |
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klinemj
Emo VIPs
Official Emofest Scribe
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Post by klinemj on Aug 11, 2012 20:41:23 GMT -5
That sounds like a good show - indeed!
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Post by The Mad Norseman on Aug 11, 2012 21:27:08 GMT -5
Beach Boys in town, huh? I've been thinking of getting their remastered 'greatest hits'. Everybody heard of the Beach Boys ofcourse. Pet Sounds is a brilliant album and then there's all the hits! But these guys are ancient. And I saw Brian Wilson on "Later... with Jools Holland" and that wasn't a very "dynamic" performance. So my expectations were not high. But boy were we in for a treat in Lokeren! The old guys were complemented by young Turks, fourteen men in total on stage. The drummer was almost as energetic as Animal from the Muppets and he got two additional percussionists helping out when called for. Lots of guitars, too. And the Boys sang breathtakingly good. All the hits were performed and some Pet Sounds and Smile stuff. Everybody in the audience danced with the music, which I never saw before here in Lokeren. This was one of their fifty "fifttieth anniversary" gigs and the only one in Benelux. Just our luck to be there. What a great time - thanks for the report! Almost nothing beats live music, and seeing the Beach Boys (+ extras apparently!) sounds like a blast. Amazing that these guys still do it and evidently still are concerned enough with rehearsing so they'll put on a tight show. Another 'oldie' I've seen a few times in recent years is Gordon Lightfoot. What a superb songwriter! The voice is not as good anymore, but at 72 he's still obviously concerned with putting on an excellent performance. Beautiful. |
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Post by Dan Laufman on Aug 18, 2012 8:38:21 GMT -5
Hi guys,
Regarding the XPR-5 packaging issue - we're on it!
Lonnie, the warehouse team, and our shipping and packaging company have carefully reviewed the damage issues, and we have developed a fix for all new shipments. Believe it or not, the foam was chosen after a lot of testing, as it provided better product protection than the original "soft" foam we had been using. It was actually more expensive to do this as had to invest in hard tooling to make the big foam pieces! No good deed goes unpunished...
Anyway, We think we are on top of this now and hopefully this will be the end of this issue.
We've always designed our packaging without regard to cost, as we know the units must arrive in good shape. It costs us a fortune to have to replace damaged product and we don't want any of you disappointed when you received you units.
For those of you who have received units with destroyed packaging, in the unlikely event that the unit must be returned, we'll send you new boxes.
Sorry for the trouble.
Cheers,
Big Dan
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Post by Entity on Aug 18, 2012 8:58:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the update Dan. Emotiva has a great reputation for the quality of their shipping, and I think we'd all like to see that continue.
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Erwin.BE
Emo VIPs
It's the room, stupid!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by Erwin.BE on Aug 18, 2012 8:58:57 GMT -5
Thanks for that! The XPR-5 itself seems bulletproof though! Doesn't sound half bad too with my Jamo's. Attachments:
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Post by Jim on Aug 18, 2012 15:26:31 GMT -5
Hi guys, Regarding the XPR-5 packaging issue - we're on it! Lonnie, the warehouse team, and our shipping and packaging company have carefully reviewed the damage issues, and we have developed a fix for all new shipments. Believe it or not, the foam was chosen after a lot of testing, as it provided better product protection than the original "soft" foam we had been using. It was actually more expensive to do this as had to invest in hard tooling to make the big foam pieces! No good deed goes unpunished... [...] Big Dan That's great to hear that's being addressed (I knew it would be  ). And I'm impressed that money isn't spared in packaging. Whenever I hear invest and tooling I cringe (actually I hear cha-ching, cha-ching.. cha-ching)..... That's unfortunate that the foam didn't work out better than the original. I had no idea that it could protect better. (And now I shall eat my words about Emotiva not spending the extra money on packaging!) Would be curious to see the new packaging fix. |
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Post by fst96se on Aug 21, 2012 12:27:19 GMT -5
Hey guys, below is a short video of the meters on my new XPR-5! You can see they are really moving! For reference, this the "Eagles-Live from Melbourne" HD-DVD, played from a Toshiba HD-A35, through a Denon 4311ci Receiver/Pre-pro... Front three speakers and side surrounds are running off the XPR-5. Front heights and rear surrounds are running off the UPA-5. Audyssey DSX enabled. Speakers are RBH 1266-SE Towers, Prototype RBH center (Based off of 6100-SE), RBH 41B heights, RBH 66-SE Sides, RBH 44-SE rears, and Dual MFW-15 Subs. The speakers the XPR is driving are LARGE. My theater room is very large... And it sounds AMAZING. I am very happy with this amp! CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW! It will take you to the photobucket video.  |
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Post by Jim on Aug 21, 2012 12:56:43 GMT -5
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Nice to see the meter working well.
Looks awesome in that rack too!
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Post by fst96se on Aug 21, 2012 13:15:53 GMT -5
These are what it replaced.   |
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Post by fst96se on Aug 21, 2012 13:25:07 GMT -5
A poor picture of my setup... For reference, the towers are 48 inches tall, weigh about 80 lbs each. The center is 48" wide, weighs about 110lbs. The corner cabinet houses two Middle Atlantic SRSR racks.  |
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Post by jvgillow on Nov 2, 2012 11:29:16 GMT -5
I got my XPR-5 set up a couple days ago, impressed with it so far. Package arrived in good shape, one of the hard foam pieces was cracked but stayed in place during transport so it didn't matter.
In the past I have always connected my amps through a power conditioner but the XPR-5 is plugged straight into the wall. Unfortunately I only have 1 circuit available so it has to share with my subwoofers and other components. I've never had a problem with tripping the breaker though.
Since all the cool kids are doing it, here's a video of my XPR-5 playing the intro to Pink Floyd's Money. The volume was turned up higher than usual just for this part.
I don't have a center speaker hooked up right now so you won't see any activity on the middle channel. Using a Denon AVR-3311 as a preamp.
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). And I'm impressed that money isn't spared in packaging.