Post by davidgonzalez on Jan 25, 2013 1:08:04 GMT -5
First of all i want to say to all the grammar nazis out there to bare with me because english is not my native language and i'm probably going to make some mistakes 
. This is also my first post on this fórum ;D
That being said, i want to talk first of myself, i am 23 years old and i may not have a lot of years in experience in the audio industry or have a golden ear but since i was young i enjoyed just sitting with my father for hours listening to some good classical, progressive and alternative rock on his top of the line (back then) Onkyo receiver with some energy speakers. since then i have owned a couple of receivers (Harman/Kardon, Denon, etc.) coupled with bose accoustimas 5 speakers. but i never liked the way those little satellite speakers paired with their subwoofer. Now that i am still living with my dads (yes thats something normal where i live) and have some money saved up from my new job i decided to start building up my first real "mid-fi" system dedicated 100% to music.
The first thing i did was going to a local store and bought a pair of decent speakers, after some internet research i went ahead and pull the trigger on the B&W 683. I am quite familiar with b&w since my dad owns a pair of cm9 and i really like those, even though they are hooked up on a receiver. A month later i had enough money saved and order the XPA-2 mainly because of all the positive reviews i read on this forum.
I am currently using a onkyo receiver as a preamp and a sony blu ray... i know this isn't the way to go but i am saving money to be able to buy the erc-2 and a xsp-1, hopefully next month i’ll have enough money. Later i will buy a DAC from musical fidelity and a svs sealed sub.
the xpa-2 came knocking to my house just 10 days after i order it (impressive for being an international shipment) and very nicely packed, the weight of this thing really caught my attention.
I have had this amp for 2 months now and i am ready to give my veredict
I'm not going to lie here, the first time i turned this amp on and put on muse new album, the second law, i wasn't very surprised. the first thing i noticed where the right leds flashing on a lower volume that i am used to listen to on the onkyo receiver. Suddenly my head started to realized that maybe my hopes where to high for these amp, that maybe the SQ was what it suppose to be for 800$. But it wasnt until i realized that this amp has a lot of gain and even though my pre amp was set on a lower volume that on the one that i’m used to, the volume was practically the same. i think i’ll buy a pair of attenuators to fix this later on.
Then i starter to relax and it wasn't until one hour later that i realized all of the little things that this amp did that make it a lot better, suddenly the music sounder richer and fuller, i still havent really perceived a improvement on headroom. The sound is very neutral and the bass isn't really as punchy as the one i have heard on other rotel amps but still is quite nice and makes my B&W speakers go as low as they possibly can (i have a big room). The mids are very good and very lifelike. dinamics are good, the soundstage is also good but i think it lacks a little in depth. What i like the most from this amp is that when i close my eyes i feel like my audio system just disappears and there’s an actual band in front of me, this is something i haven’t heard in my house before.
Other thing i noticed is that i always have headaches after hours of listening to music in moderate to high levels, i always thought this was a normal thing, but not any more i haven't had a single headache since i got this amp
.
i really expect that the sound will improve with a decent preamp and a decent cd player. overall a happy costumer.
--UPDATE---
i finally replace the sony bluray player and got the oppo 105 and added a svs sb12 nsd. I also added a pair of 12db attenuators and got rid of the onkyo i was using as a pre.
the oppo is a very good player that lets me hear everything more clear and has an excellent DAC. the music seems to have more depth and detail, it is also dead quiet.
the svs really helps the b&w 683 on the lower end... i have the crossover set at 80hz and now i can enjoy music in a lower volume. i did have some difficulties finding the best spot because of the lack of corners in my room
.
and finally the attenuators let me play the oppo at higher levels so i don;t lose bits at lowers volume and even though i feel like i lost some dynamics, i now feel everything is smoother somehow.
now i only need to replace the ugly table
here are some pics
. This is also my first post on this fórum ;DThat being said, i want to talk first of myself, i am 23 years old and i may not have a lot of years in experience in the audio industry or have a golden ear but since i was young i enjoyed just sitting with my father for hours listening to some good classical, progressive and alternative rock on his top of the line (back then) Onkyo receiver with some energy speakers. since then i have owned a couple of receivers (Harman/Kardon, Denon, etc.) coupled with bose accoustimas 5 speakers. but i never liked the way those little satellite speakers paired with their subwoofer. Now that i am still living with my dads (yes thats something normal where i live) and have some money saved up from my new job i decided to start building up my first real "mid-fi" system dedicated 100% to music.
The first thing i did was going to a local store and bought a pair of decent speakers, after some internet research i went ahead and pull the trigger on the B&W 683. I am quite familiar with b&w since my dad owns a pair of cm9 and i really like those, even though they are hooked up on a receiver. A month later i had enough money saved and order the XPA-2 mainly because of all the positive reviews i read on this forum.
I am currently using a onkyo receiver as a preamp and a sony blu ray... i know this isn't the way to go but i am saving money to be able to buy the erc-2 and a xsp-1, hopefully next month i’ll have enough money. Later i will buy a DAC from musical fidelity and a svs sealed sub.
the xpa-2 came knocking to my house just 10 days after i order it (impressive for being an international shipment) and very nicely packed, the weight of this thing really caught my attention.
I have had this amp for 2 months now and i am ready to give my veredict
I'm not going to lie here, the first time i turned this amp on and put on muse new album, the second law, i wasn't very surprised. the first thing i noticed where the right leds flashing on a lower volume that i am used to listen to on the onkyo receiver. Suddenly my head started to realized that maybe my hopes where to high for these amp, that maybe the SQ was what it suppose to be for 800$. But it wasnt until i realized that this amp has a lot of gain and even though my pre amp was set on a lower volume that on the one that i’m used to, the volume was practically the same. i think i’ll buy a pair of attenuators to fix this later on.
Then i starter to relax and it wasn't until one hour later that i realized all of the little things that this amp did that make it a lot better, suddenly the music sounder richer and fuller, i still havent really perceived a improvement on headroom. The sound is very neutral and the bass isn't really as punchy as the one i have heard on other rotel amps but still is quite nice and makes my B&W speakers go as low as they possibly can (i have a big room). The mids are very good and very lifelike. dinamics are good, the soundstage is also good but i think it lacks a little in depth. What i like the most from this amp is that when i close my eyes i feel like my audio system just disappears and there’s an actual band in front of me, this is something i haven’t heard in my house before.
Other thing i noticed is that i always have headaches after hours of listening to music in moderate to high levels, i always thought this was a normal thing, but not any more i haven't had a single headache since i got this amp
. i really expect that the sound will improve with a decent preamp and a decent cd player. overall a happy costumer.
--UPDATE---
i finally replace the sony bluray player and got the oppo 105 and added a svs sb12 nsd. I also added a pair of 12db attenuators and got rid of the onkyo i was using as a pre.
the oppo is a very good player that lets me hear everything more clear and has an excellent DAC. the music seems to have more depth and detail, it is also dead quiet.
the svs really helps the b&w 683 on the lower end... i have the crossover set at 80hz and now i can enjoy music in a lower volume. i did have some difficulties finding the best spot because of the lack of corners in my room
. and finally the attenuators let me play the oppo at higher levels so i don;t lose bits at lowers volume and even though i feel like i lost some dynamics, i now feel everything is smoother somehow.
now i only need to replace the ugly table
here are some pics
even tough my b&w seems to like it. 
