Post by edmondwolfman on Jan 16, 2009 19:12:39 GMT -5
My RPA-2 arrived today and as of this post it's in my cabinet and has been running for about 4 hours. There was not a 12v trigger cable included as someone had mentioned in another thread so I'm running on the "signal on" mode. If you order an RPS-2 then you get the cable. I'm heading out now but will return to add more later ;D
Ok, Saturday and I'll post some observations so far. When I received the RPA-2 yesterday it had been traveling on trucks for a couple of days and was ice cold. I unboxed it and set it on top of the box, turned up the heat in my house a bit and turned a ceiling fan on high above the amp to keep warm air flowing around it for a couple of hours.
RPA-2 was double boxed, arrived in good shape and the black cloth bag was a nice/classy touch. Once unboxed the amp is very nice looking and felt like a solid build at over 50 lbs.
I han't had my Denon 3808 on at all so I pulled the cabinet out from the wall, reached throught the back and removed the L and R front banana plugs from the AVR. I plugged in a RCA cable to the pre-out FL and FR as my AVR has no balanced outputs, and ran the cable 4 foot to the other end of the cabinet where the RPA-2 will reside. Fed the cables through the back of the cabinet and had enough cable on the RCA and speakers to be able to connect all wires before sliding the amp into the cabinet.
I didn't have a 12V trigger cable so I set the switch on the back to "signal", turned the main on/off switch on the back on and slid the amp into it's final resting place. Tight squeeze, if the RPA-2 would have been even 1/2 inch wider I would have had to remove the cabinet door ;D I'm thinking "that was too easy", when things go too smoothly, for me at least there is usually hell to pay on down the road. I reach around back and plug the amp into the AC line, sit down in my listening area and pick up the remote. <Drum roll please> I hit the "Listen to Music" button on my Monster remote watch everything power on and wait for the music to start. The AVR was previously set to Dolby II music and I started getting music from the center channel and the 2 surrounds. I keep watching the meters on the front of the amp....no blue lights. Now I'm thinking the amp is either DOA or the "signal on" doesn't work. Get out the manual and see that there is another power switch on the front that must be manually powered on. Open the cabinet, hit the front power button and the RPA comes alive
Time to listen to the RPA-2 in stereo mode. I'm tuned to Internet Radio via the Net/USB mode on the Denon. Before somebody starts electronically b*tch slapping me let me say that there are some Internet stations streaming through the Denon that sound amazing, especially some of the smooth jazz stations. First thought is "crap, my wife must have accidentally rolled my sub volume to full wide open while she was dusting". I have a HSU ULS-15 1000W sub. I flip on the onscreen setup menu go to 2 channel music to turn off the sub and to my surprise the sub is already turned off. Without any changes the music that sounded really decent to me from the Denon alone was completely unlistenable coming through the RPA-2
The sound was so bad that my initial thoughts were that I would never be able to equalize it with the Denon and if the RPA-2 didn't match up with my Axiom M60s I'll end up having to send it back. Not that anything was wrong with the amp I just didn't think I would be able to incorporate it with my existing equipment. I left everything running and went about my business for a couple of hours just to make sure that everything in the amp had warmed up good.
I come back later and still WAY TOO MUCH bass even without the sub engaged. I started playing with all the audio setting in the Denon. Let me say here that although the Denon 3808 is only about a $1600 amp it is feature rich and has so many modes and tweaks that if you aren't knowlegable or comfortable you can get completely lost/confused trying to navigate all the menus. Depending on what mode you are listening to, whether you have Audyssey on, whether you have Dynamic Room Equalization on, etc. your sound can vary greatly. I found some tone settings where I could control the amount of bass and treble. After getting all the bass out of the music everything started to fall into place. Let me say here that I've been posting for months while researching amps and many of you have probably heard me say that while most of the time my music sounds good there still seems to be something missing. Well after hearing what the music sounded like coming out of the RPA-2 with the same settings I was using for the Denon alone I realized that I had previously had a lot of subdued or recessed music.
I'm now listening to stereo music after much tweaking and it sounds better than it ever has. I'm starting to feel a little giddy as I was depressed at first because the sound was so bad. All the midrange I've been missing/looking for for so long is now there. I don't have to crank it to hear all the midrange which usually cause my high range to sound too harsh or bright. At this point my 2 channel music definately sound better than it ever has so the next test is to turn on multichannel music and see if the RPA-2 will play nicely with my center (Axiom VP100) and my surrounds (Atlantic Technology). I need the amp to work well in multichannel music becasue while I really like listening to 2 channel music I do have several SACDs that sound best in 5.1 mode and I have several Bluray concert discs that have to play in DTS-HD Master Audio to sound their best. Turned on multichannel, adjusted each channel level to accomodate the FR and FL running through a separate amp and the next thing I know my multichannel music sound better than ever. Once again things are going too smoothly ;D After reading some posts where it was said that RPA is for music and XPA for HT I think, Ok it's time to put in a movie see what happens.
I'll admit I was somewhat apprehensive that although all my music now sounds better than it has before that HT would actually suck. Usually you can't have everything, there is give and take. Put in a Bluray with a DTS-HD Master Audio track. I'll admit that for some reason when playing movies I usually had to bump my center channel way up to pick up the voices so you didn't have to strain to hear. I mentioned earlier in the post that my midrange is now much better and my highs don't sound harsh. Well that played perfectly with HT. I didn't have to bump the center channel up and all the soundtrack that was previously hard to pick out was now crystal clear. I could hear voices and dialog with no problem at all. Don't know if this is because the the midrange is produced much better through the RPA or if the Denon is less stressed by driving only the center and 2 surrounds or a combination of both.
I don't know if the RPA-2 needs burn-in time. I'm not sure if here is where I say "Do the needles ever move or are they broken ;D" or "I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before" but what I will say is that I think I made the correct choice. I was looking at 500W Ice amps and would have had to pay around $2000 for 2 channel Ice amp. My listening area isn't that large although the room is and I now believe that the 500W would have been overkill as I probably would never utilize that much power and it would just sit there wasted. As far as the XPA series really hitting hard on explosions and crashes during movies I don't seem to have a problem as my 1000W sub fills in nicely.
Because my music now sounds better than ever and with my HT actually sounding better than it ever has I think I'm going to be completely happy with the RPA-2. Since I haven't heard an XPA maybe I don't know what I'm missing but I do know that my system is now much better than it was just 1 day ago and only for $699 instead of $2000.
Thanks for everyone's input and guideance. I'll post more as I get to spend more time with the RPA-2. I should proably re-run my audyssey room correction and I may at some point but I've been able to tweak enough manually that as for now I'm completely happy.
If my wife ever notices the 2 blue VU meters shining through the glass door directly in front of her I'll be able to say "You know that $2000 amp I was looking at? Well this one only cost $699". I'll look like a hero ;D
Oh yeah, as an afterthought. When I arrived at home last night I turned on my audio system because I was curious if the amp would actually detect a "signal" and turn on automatically. It worked as advertised so I don't think I even need to try and find a 12V trigger cable
Ok, Saturday and I'll post some observations so far. When I received the RPA-2 yesterday it had been traveling on trucks for a couple of days and was ice cold. I unboxed it and set it on top of the box, turned up the heat in my house a bit and turned a ceiling fan on high above the amp to keep warm air flowing around it for a couple of hours.
RPA-2 was double boxed, arrived in good shape and the black cloth bag was a nice/classy touch. Once unboxed the amp is very nice looking and felt like a solid build at over 50 lbs.
I han't had my Denon 3808 on at all so I pulled the cabinet out from the wall, reached throught the back and removed the L and R front banana plugs from the AVR. I plugged in a RCA cable to the pre-out FL and FR as my AVR has no balanced outputs, and ran the cable 4 foot to the other end of the cabinet where the RPA-2 will reside. Fed the cables through the back of the cabinet and had enough cable on the RCA and speakers to be able to connect all wires before sliding the amp into the cabinet.
I didn't have a 12V trigger cable so I set the switch on the back to "signal", turned the main on/off switch on the back on and slid the amp into it's final resting place. Tight squeeze, if the RPA-2 would have been even 1/2 inch wider I would have had to remove the cabinet door ;D I'm thinking "that was too easy", when things go too smoothly, for me at least there is usually hell to pay on down the road. I reach around back and plug the amp into the AC line, sit down in my listening area and pick up the remote. <Drum roll please> I hit the "Listen to Music" button on my Monster remote watch everything power on and wait for the music to start. The AVR was previously set to Dolby II music and I started getting music from the center channel and the 2 surrounds. I keep watching the meters on the front of the amp....no blue lights. Now I'm thinking the amp is either DOA or the "signal on" doesn't work. Get out the manual and see that there is another power switch on the front that must be manually powered on. Open the cabinet, hit the front power button and the RPA comes alive
Time to listen to the RPA-2 in stereo mode. I'm tuned to Internet Radio via the Net/USB mode on the Denon. Before somebody starts electronically b*tch slapping me let me say that there are some Internet stations streaming through the Denon that sound amazing, especially some of the smooth jazz stations. First thought is "crap, my wife must have accidentally rolled my sub volume to full wide open while she was dusting". I have a HSU ULS-15 1000W sub. I flip on the onscreen setup menu go to 2 channel music to turn off the sub and to my surprise the sub is already turned off. Without any changes the music that sounded really decent to me from the Denon alone was completely unlistenable coming through the RPA-2
The sound was so bad that my initial thoughts were that I would never be able to equalize it with the Denon and if the RPA-2 didn't match up with my Axiom M60s I'll end up having to send it back. Not that anything was wrong with the amp I just didn't think I would be able to incorporate it with my existing equipment. I left everything running and went about my business for a couple of hours just to make sure that everything in the amp had warmed up good.I come back later and still WAY TOO MUCH bass even without the sub engaged. I started playing with all the audio setting in the Denon. Let me say here that although the Denon 3808 is only about a $1600 amp it is feature rich and has so many modes and tweaks that if you aren't knowlegable or comfortable you can get completely lost/confused trying to navigate all the menus. Depending on what mode you are listening to, whether you have Audyssey on, whether you have Dynamic Room Equalization on, etc. your sound can vary greatly. I found some tone settings where I could control the amount of bass and treble. After getting all the bass out of the music everything started to fall into place. Let me say here that I've been posting for months while researching amps and many of you have probably heard me say that while most of the time my music sounds good there still seems to be something missing. Well after hearing what the music sounded like coming out of the RPA-2 with the same settings I was using for the Denon alone I realized that I had previously had a lot of subdued or recessed music.
I'm now listening to stereo music after much tweaking and it sounds better than it ever has. I'm starting to feel a little giddy as I was depressed at first because the sound was so bad. All the midrange I've been missing/looking for for so long is now there. I don't have to crank it to hear all the midrange which usually cause my high range to sound too harsh or bright. At this point my 2 channel music definately sound better than it ever has so the next test is to turn on multichannel music and see if the RPA-2 will play nicely with my center (Axiom VP100) and my surrounds (Atlantic Technology). I need the amp to work well in multichannel music becasue while I really like listening to 2 channel music I do have several SACDs that sound best in 5.1 mode and I have several Bluray concert discs that have to play in DTS-HD Master Audio to sound their best. Turned on multichannel, adjusted each channel level to accomodate the FR and FL running through a separate amp and the next thing I know my multichannel music sound better than ever. Once again things are going too smoothly ;D After reading some posts where it was said that RPA is for music and XPA for HT I think, Ok it's time to put in a movie see what happens.
I'll admit I was somewhat apprehensive that although all my music now sounds better than it has before that HT would actually suck. Usually you can't have everything, there is give and take. Put in a Bluray with a DTS-HD Master Audio track. I'll admit that for some reason when playing movies I usually had to bump my center channel way up to pick up the voices so you didn't have to strain to hear. I mentioned earlier in the post that my midrange is now much better and my highs don't sound harsh. Well that played perfectly with HT. I didn't have to bump the center channel up and all the soundtrack that was previously hard to pick out was now crystal clear. I could hear voices and dialog with no problem at all. Don't know if this is because the the midrange is produced much better through the RPA or if the Denon is less stressed by driving only the center and 2 surrounds or a combination of both.
I don't know if the RPA-2 needs burn-in time. I'm not sure if here is where I say "Do the needles ever move or are they broken ;D" or "I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before" but what I will say is that I think I made the correct choice. I was looking at 500W Ice amps and would have had to pay around $2000 for 2 channel Ice amp. My listening area isn't that large although the room is and I now believe that the 500W would have been overkill as I probably would never utilize that much power and it would just sit there wasted. As far as the XPA series really hitting hard on explosions and crashes during movies I don't seem to have a problem as my 1000W sub fills in nicely.
Because my music now sounds better than ever and with my HT actually sounding better than it ever has I think I'm going to be completely happy with the RPA-2. Since I haven't heard an XPA maybe I don't know what I'm missing but I do know that my system is now much better than it was just 1 day ago and only for $699 instead of $2000.
Thanks for everyone's input and guideance. I'll post more as I get to spend more time with the RPA-2. I should proably re-run my audyssey room correction and I may at some point but I've been able to tweak enough manually that as for now I'm completely happy.
If my wife ever notices the 2 blue VU meters shining through the glass door directly in front of her I'll be able to say "You know that $2000 amp I was looking at? Well this one only cost $699". I'll look like a hero ;D
Oh yeah, as an afterthought. When I arrived at home last night I turned on my audio system because I was curious if the amp would actually detect a "signal" and turn on automatically. It worked as advertised so I don't think I even need to try and find a 12V trigger cable
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....we're pretty badass 
The website had it listed as 17" and that was a contributing factor as to why I ordered it, it had to fit in my cabinet. I ran and grabbed a tape measure and was very relieved when the width did indeed turn out to be 17" instead of what the manual said.
