Seriously.... Emotiva vs. the "Other Guys"

[mpow3r]

So, I looked for a "general discussion" area and didn't find it....  Direct me there if I am missing it.

Here is kind of my light hearted rant/discussion....  I have been very passionate about music and audio for as long as I can remember.  I learned at a very young age to listen to what evoked an emotion and not what is "popular" and I always tell people, "hey, if the backstreet boys evokes an emotion in you then, by all means listen away.  You'll get no grief from me about it"  I only pick that band because it seemed to be an easy target to make fun of people for.  Personally, not my cup of tea but these bands make money so they must be doing something right....

So, I recently entered the world of separates and was introduced to Emotiva by a long time friend of mine.  I was an instant fan.  Just purchased my dream speakers, a pair of B&W 803D's.  I absolutely love them!  I am powering them by a pair of XPA-1's based on Emotiva's recommendation.  With the purchase of such an expensive pair of speakers, I knew my amps would have to be Emotiva, at least to start with.  After hearing them powered by the XPA-1's, it may be hard to get me to go to anything else.  Originally, I thought I might upgrade to something McIntosh however, now I am going to require an extensive demo and the difference is going to have to absolutely blow me away to invest in such an expensive amp.  And I mean the kind of difference that makes the hair on your neck stand up!  I demo'ed the 803D's on a pair of Classé amps, I don't know the exact model but I do know it was a 2x 300w.  I'll have to say it did nothing for me.  I would like to say my XPA-1's sound better but I didnt do a true A-B test but what I do know is that listening to my system I am NOT thinking... "man, they sounded so much better in the store."

I'll admit, I own several Audioquest products, mostly entry level stuff that just looks awesome.  Even when purchasing it, I always had it in the back of my mind that I was buying this mostly for looks and was okay with it.  I started doing some heavier research for the 803D's on what cable I was going to have to hook up to these things to get them to sound right.  After sifting through tons of info, forum arguments, "scientific info", I decided to really splurge on my cables and get the braided Emotiva cables for $39 as opposed to the $1500 I was thinking of spending on some AQ stuff.  Again, I couldn't be happier with the sound of my new system.

For me, where I really notice the difference is in the speakers, not in cables or amps, so that is where I spent my money.  Like I said, a McIntosh upgrade may be a possiblity one day but I am going to need an in house demo and it's going to need to be a night and day difference for me to make the switch....

[PGT]

Back when I sold B&W and Mark Levinson and McIntosh; I used to recommend to customers that 80% of their budget should be the speakers. That's where they get the most performance per dollar spent.

Not sure where you're located, but, at my old shop...we'd allow customers to demo equipment in-home before committing to the purchase. You'd pay for it and you'd get the floor model; return within 30 days for a refund or we'd order a factory new one if we didn't already have a sealed box in stock. To me, it was a fair way to do business when we're talking about $10k speakers and $4k electronics. We just became skilled at discerning real customers for the tire-kickers who played games.

[briank]

You might try the XPR-1's as they sound very "McIntoshy" to me. .

[bootman]

Or maybe try the gen2 XPA-1 with the 60W of class A power.
That should be a easy enough comparison.

Humm, maybe Emotiva should have a trade up program.....

[briank]

Sept 13, 2013 11:07:18 GMT -5 bootman said:

Or maybe try the gen2 XPA-1 with the 60W of class A power.
That should be a easy enough comparison.

Humm, maybe Emotiva should have a trade up program.....

Or bi-amp with two of these per speaker.

[stads77]

Sept 13, 2013 11:07:18 GMT -5 bootman said:

Or maybe try the gen2 XPA-1 with the 60W of class A power.
That should be a easy enough comparison.

Humm, maybe Emotiva should have a trade up program.....

One of the best things about Emotiva, is that their stuff sells very fast and at an incredible rate of return used. I love that it makes it all the easier to upgrade in the line, but a trade up program would be cool too.