Post by ac2011 on Jun 6, 2013 8:52:08 GMT -5
So, I am somewhat reluctant/ashamed/embarrassed to admit that I FINALLY hooked up my XPA-3 last night. I purchased this during the holiday sale at the end of last year; it has been sitting idly in my rack since I received it, waiting for the day that I actually had some time free from my wife and 2 small kids to devote to integrating it into my system.
For months now, I periodically endured the question from the wife "have you hooked up that new box yet? what does it do?" My simple answer: "it makes it louder".
I had great visions of a glorious A/B analysis; watching/listening to a few scenes from Top Gun and some other great soundtracked actioners; partaking of the as-yet-unwatched Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall blu-ray; reviewing the dulcet tones of a certain Ms. Krall and even some nice 70's rock tunes - then putting in the XPA-3 and doing it all again.
Alas, the available moments have been so fleeting that there was never any block of time - or even smaller close together chunks of time - to be able to engage in such selfish acts.
Finally, enough was enough.
I found myself at home yesterday afternoon (rare for a work day that is not a planned vacation day), with the wife gone, toddler at pre-school, and 6-month old soundly napping 2 floors up. The time to strike was now. I duly made the appropriate attachments to my Yamaha receiver - initially dismayed that the trigger did not, in fact, trigger the XPA-3 on (later worked out) - then the youngest awoke; of course.
Later, after settling the little ones snug in their beds, I snuck back to the basement to see/hear for myself. Having no grand A/B possibility at this point, the only thing I had to resort to was memory, and basic TV viewing.
I can report this - my Yamaha is set to come on at a comfortable preset volume of -43 dB; when I turned the system on with the XPA in the mix, I had to immediately turn it down to -48 dB to achieve the same level of comfort. By no means a scientific analysis of what I've just added; but, at least I can tell my wife that it does what I told her it does - "it makes it louder"
Hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, I will have the ability to more fully understand/recognize/appreciate the difference this has made to my system; I can hardly wait. But as the title says: will I ever forget that first TURN ON?
For months now, I periodically endured the question from the wife "have you hooked up that new box yet? what does it do?" My simple answer: "it makes it louder".
I had great visions of a glorious A/B analysis; watching/listening to a few scenes from Top Gun and some other great soundtracked actioners; partaking of the as-yet-unwatched Adele Live at Royal Albert Hall blu-ray; reviewing the dulcet tones of a certain Ms. Krall and even some nice 70's rock tunes - then putting in the XPA-3 and doing it all again.
Alas, the available moments have been so fleeting that there was never any block of time - or even smaller close together chunks of time - to be able to engage in such selfish acts.
Finally, enough was enough.
I found myself at home yesterday afternoon (rare for a work day that is not a planned vacation day), with the wife gone, toddler at pre-school, and 6-month old soundly napping 2 floors up. The time to strike was now. I duly made the appropriate attachments to my Yamaha receiver - initially dismayed that the trigger did not, in fact, trigger the XPA-3 on (later worked out) - then the youngest awoke; of course.
Later, after settling the little ones snug in their beds, I snuck back to the basement to see/hear for myself. Having no grand A/B possibility at this point, the only thing I had to resort to was memory, and basic TV viewing.
I can report this - my Yamaha is set to come on at a comfortable preset volume of -43 dB; when I turned the system on with the XPA in the mix, I had to immediately turn it down to -48 dB to achieve the same level of comfort. By no means a scientific analysis of what I've just added; but, at least I can tell my wife that it does what I told her it does - "it makes it louder"
Hopefully, in the coming days and weeks, I will have the ability to more fully understand/recognize/appreciate the difference this has made to my system; I can hardly wait. But as the title says: will I ever forget that first TURN ON?
