Post by darien87 on Dec 3, 2008 12:11:36 GMT -5
As those of you who have read my "Lemme tell you 'bout Emotiva" thread know, I just got my hands on my XPA-5 last night. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in that thread that when I was placing the order, Cathy gave me an extra 2% discount for paying by check instead of credit card. The 2% is what Emotiva gets charged by the credit card company. I thought that was extremely nice of her. That was a little extra money that could have gone in Emotiva's pocket, but she took in on herself to give it to me. ;D
So, of course I ended up blowing off the gym and rushing home after work to hook up the amp. Man was it a chore to get it up off the floor and into my cabinet. Good thing I had the cables all marked and ready to go, but it was still a pain, balancing the amp on a chair while I made the connections in back.
I only spent about an hour doing critical listening, but here are my impressions:
I started off with some movies. The first one I put in was the Iron Man BD. I first went to the Jericho missile test scene. For those of you that might not know, for some insanely stupid reason, this disc has a flag that will automatically turn Dynamic Range Compression on, if you don't have it turned off in your player or receiver. Make sure you do this.
Anyway, the scene sounded great of course, but I noticed some metallic clinking sounds when the main missile opens up and releases all of those little missiles. I don't think I really noticed that sound before.
Then, I put in the I Am Legend BD. I'm a Mustang guy, so I really like the Shelby scene in the beginning. I put that on and on the part where Will Smith is chasing the deer through the park, the sound of the deer hoofbeats sounded clearer. It seemed like I was able to separate the sounds of different deer hooves. With my LPA-1, the hoofbeats just kind of melded together into a mass of sound. Last night, they seemed to sound a little more distinct.
Last, I popped in the Cloverfield BD. I skipped to the scene where Hud is watching the soldiers running down the street, firing guns and missiles at the monster. I LOVE the part where Hud is running for the subway and looks up to see the monster screaming right above him! The sound of the soldiers guns seemed a little clearer and more life-like than before. The only thing that seemed a little off was the sound of the monster's foot as it slams into the ground. It seemed a little scratchy and distorted, but I believe that it is supposed to sound this way. I think that the sound design is made to sound like it was recorded with a video camera. So I think that this is just the XPA bringing out the bad sound that was purposely put in the film.
Then I decided to try some music. I put in everything from Bob James, David Sanborn, Crystal Method, and Def Leppard to Mariah Carey. I was trying to get a good cross section of the types of music I listen to. Bob James piano sounded clear and beautiful. David Sanborn's sax was lifelike and exciting. I was able to push songs by Crystal Method and Mariah Carey, (songs that have a lot of bass), to insane levels without the sound becoming strained or distorted. After about a half hour of doing this, my wife started to get pissed at me. She said, "What are you doing? You're never going to listen to music that loud!" ;D I told her that the point was being able to if I wanted to.
So all in all, the feeling I got from this amp was that everything from movies to music seemed a little more clear and defined. I can't really articulate it. It was like the difference between Dolby Digital and uncompressed audio to me; not a HUGE difference, but definitely noticeable. But honestly, I'm a bit surprised. I didn't expect to really be able to hear much of a difference between my LPA-1 and my XPA-5. They both made by Emotiva, and the XPA is only 75 watts per channel stronger.
Is this just the placebo effect? Am I just hearing what I want to hear? I am admitedly not an audiophile. I don't have the best equipment. But I think I have good equipment, and I think I have a pretty good ear for what sounds good. I've always been into audio equipment, but I've only started doing serious research for the last few years. I just got into separate amps a couple of years ago. I went from an Acurus 200x3, to the LPA-1, to the XPA-5. So it's an ongoing learning process and it's been a lot of fun so far. When I listen to my system, I can't believe that there are people that are satisfied with BOSE, HTIB's or just their TV speakers.
So, of course I ended up blowing off the gym and rushing home after work to hook up the amp. Man was it a chore to get it up off the floor and into my cabinet. Good thing I had the cables all marked and ready to go, but it was still a pain, balancing the amp on a chair while I made the connections in back.
I only spent about an hour doing critical listening, but here are my impressions:
I started off with some movies. The first one I put in was the Iron Man BD. I first went to the Jericho missile test scene. For those of you that might not know, for some insanely stupid reason, this disc has a flag that will automatically turn Dynamic Range Compression on, if you don't have it turned off in your player or receiver. Make sure you do this.
Anyway, the scene sounded great of course, but I noticed some metallic clinking sounds when the main missile opens up and releases all of those little missiles. I don't think I really noticed that sound before.
Then, I put in the I Am Legend BD. I'm a Mustang guy, so I really like the Shelby scene in the beginning. I put that on and on the part where Will Smith is chasing the deer through the park, the sound of the deer hoofbeats sounded clearer. It seemed like I was able to separate the sounds of different deer hooves. With my LPA-1, the hoofbeats just kind of melded together into a mass of sound. Last night, they seemed to sound a little more distinct.
Last, I popped in the Cloverfield BD. I skipped to the scene where Hud is watching the soldiers running down the street, firing guns and missiles at the monster. I LOVE the part where Hud is running for the subway and looks up to see the monster screaming right above him! The sound of the soldiers guns seemed a little clearer and more life-like than before. The only thing that seemed a little off was the sound of the monster's foot as it slams into the ground. It seemed a little scratchy and distorted, but I believe that it is supposed to sound this way. I think that the sound design is made to sound like it was recorded with a video camera. So I think that this is just the XPA bringing out the bad sound that was purposely put in the film.
Then I decided to try some music. I put in everything from Bob James, David Sanborn, Crystal Method, and Def Leppard to Mariah Carey. I was trying to get a good cross section of the types of music I listen to. Bob James piano sounded clear and beautiful. David Sanborn's sax was lifelike and exciting. I was able to push songs by Crystal Method and Mariah Carey, (songs that have a lot of bass), to insane levels without the sound becoming strained or distorted. After about a half hour of doing this, my wife started to get pissed at me. She said, "What are you doing? You're never going to listen to music that loud!" ;D I told her that the point was being able to if I wanted to.
So all in all, the feeling I got from this amp was that everything from movies to music seemed a little more clear and defined. I can't really articulate it. It was like the difference between Dolby Digital and uncompressed audio to me; not a HUGE difference, but definitely noticeable. But honestly, I'm a bit surprised. I didn't expect to really be able to hear much of a difference between my LPA-1 and my XPA-5. They both made by Emotiva, and the XPA is only 75 watts per channel stronger.
Is this just the placebo effect? Am I just hearing what I want to hear? I am admitedly not an audiophile. I don't have the best equipment. But I think I have good equipment, and I think I have a pretty good ear for what sounds good. I've always been into audio equipment, but I've only started doing serious research for the last few years. I just got into separate amps a couple of years ago. I went from an Acurus 200x3, to the LPA-1, to the XPA-5. So it's an ongoing learning process and it's been a lot of fun so far. When I listen to my system, I can't believe that there are people that are satisfied with BOSE, HTIB's or just their TV speakers.
