p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 9, 2014 19:23:05 GMT -5
I have a budget limit of 8-$900.00 and need to purchase a new 2 channel power amp. The three I have had in mind are, Parasound halo a23 125wpc., Parasound New Classic 2125 125wpc. and the Emotiva XPA-2 gen2 300wpc. all ratings are into an 8 ohm load. I had the 2125 Parasound sounded musical like I wanted but, seemed to lack in dynamics. The speakers are Polk Audio monitor 70 towers rated 275 watts peak power and 90db. spl. I thought about the Emotiva figuring it would push the rather inefficent speakers but, am not sure if it will be as musical as the other amps as well as more powerful, or not. Also my preamp is an Adcom Gfp 565 which has been modded and it also drives my diy 15" powered sub with a 500 watt Bash amp from Parts Express as well as the power amp by line level. The 2125 amp was the one I was using that went out on me. Thanks for all advice and suggestions of other amps within my price range are welcomed. I realize, this is an Emotiva forum and hope it's alright to list the other brands here. Thanks!  |
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Post by Gary Cook on Jan 9, 2014 20:39:28 GMT -5
OK I'll bight, what are your sources, what pre amp, what's the room like, acoustics etc?
When you say "musical" what do you mean? Perhaps relate it to musical instruments or voices, male or female that you like the sound of.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 9, 2014 20:48:19 GMT -5
First, welcome to the lounge. It's ok to talk about other brands of gear here, we all do it all the time. I am of the mind set that says that re is no such thing as too much power. IMO, you should buy the most power you can afford on your budget. In this case, that happens to be the Emotiva amp. Polk speakers like power, and lots of it, and you don't want to end up with an amp that will run out of gas on transients, or when you feel like playing loud. Emo also has a 30 day, no questions asked, return policy, so if you get it home and find you were looking for something a bit different, you can send it back to them. The only thing you would be out is your shipping cost. Good luck with whatever you choose. |
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Post by creimes on Jan 9, 2014 20:48:27 GMT -5
Not putting down the Polk speakers but from all the Polk's I have owned including a pair of Monitor 70's they can't compete with my Monitor Audio RX6's in terms of SQ, I currently own a set of the less expensive M20's that are in use on the second zone upstairs and while I think they sound great when I listen to them my MA's are still superior. Have you considered different speakers or are you wanting to get an amplifier first and foremost ?
Oh and any of Emotiva's amps I own or have owned sound very musical to me in my setup, I really enjoy my XPA-1L's and my previous XPA-2 and UPA-1's were all very great neutral sounding amps.
Chad
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Post by moko on Jan 10, 2014 2:10:37 GMT -5
aren't musical and dynamics opposite to each other ? if your source isn't musical then you wouldn't expect the amp(s) turn it into musical, right ?
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 10, 2014 2:29:58 GMT -5
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p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 10, 2014 7:37:23 GMT -5
Hi folks, As far as room size I live in a small mobile home and between the living room which is pretty much open into the kitchen would measure about 10.5ft W x 16ft L x 7ft H. The preamp is an Adcom GFP 565 which has two sets of rca outputs one drives the powered sub and the other output drives the power amp. I plan to upgrade the speakers when funds allow as I know they are the weakest link in the chain. As far as sources, most of the music I listen to is from dishnet satellite but, I do listen to cds once in a while on my Marantz CD 67se cd player highly modded also, the preamp was modded when I got it due to the ages of both components. The mods were slightly larger and better quality ps Caps, hand built bridge rectifiers using Stealth diodes, better quality op amps with extra decoupling and bypassing with high quality film caps. I've read differing reviews about the Emotiva XPA-2 gen2 amps on the net where some seem to find them to sound bright with their system components using more than one brand/model speakers while others said they sounded fantastic and well balanced in their systems with the speakers they had. Of course that's pretty much the kind of reviews I see with about every brand of amp I run across. Not being able to audition any of the different amps locally in my small town complicates things as all I can do is just order an amp and hope for the best because what sounds good in one persons system may sound like crap in mine and vice-versa. Living on a small fixed income budget doesn't help matters any either. I appreciate all the help and the more the better Thanks! |
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Post by garbulky on Jan 10, 2014 8:08:16 GMT -5
What I would do is spend 900 bucks and add a few more and buy new speakers. I' not sayingyour speakers sound bad but it is the best component to upgrade for your setup. For instgance, check out Tekton's M-lore speaker ($700) or EMotiva's upcoming tower speaker.  Also ats acoustic panels would be a good investment. As for musical sounding amps. I';ve heard the XPA-2 gen 1's. I doubt you would be dissapointed with them at all. And they do appreciate a good pre-amp. It has lots of power. I doubt you'd go wrong with that amp. However this is where you should spend your money in terms of value Speakers. Acoustic panels. Dacs. Amps. Everything else comes a distant last. |
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p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 10, 2014 8:36:17 GMT -5
What I would do is spend 900 bucks and add a few more and buy new speakers. I' not sayingyour speakers sound bad but it is the best component to upgrade for your setup. For instgance, check out Tekton's M-lore speaker ($700) or EMotiva's upcoming tower speaker. At this time, I have no power amp at all so, I have to get that first and then try to upgrade my speakers when funds allow I may have forgotten to mention, having no amp at all at this time sorry! Also ats acoustic panels would be a good investment. As for musical sounding amps. I';ve heard the XPA-2 gen 1's. I doubt you would be dissapointed with them at all. And they do appreciate a good pre-amp. It has lots of power. I doubt you'd go wrong with that amp. However this is where you should spend your money in terms of value Speakers. Acoustic panels. Dacs. Amps. Everything else comes a distant last. |
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Post by creimes on Jan 10, 2014 10:29:57 GMT -5
What about hitting two birds with one stone and grabbing a pair of Stealth 6's or Stealth 8's, great speakers that are powered so no need for a separate amplifier....?
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Post by moko on Jan 10, 2014 11:10:47 GMT -5
i agree with garbulky. get yourself a high efficiency speakers. the ones that easy to drive even with low powered tube amps. i think that kind of speakers will give you much more dynamics compared to upgrading amp. ofcourse you will think that your 90 db speakers are efficient enough. but they are not. if you read a brochure of the same series speakers from the same brand/manufacturer, you will see that the floorstand version are more sensitive compared to bookshelfs. does that mean the floorstand speakers are more easy to drive compared to the bookshelf ones ? i don't think so. 93 db efficiency or above will give you dynamics that you'll love |
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Post by geebo on Jan 10, 2014 11:33:32 GMT -5
I agree that you might want to look at speakers. I've owned Polk (TSi 500s and RTiA7s) and while good there are better options out there. Creimes has a good idea about the Stealths. Having said that, Polks love power and the XPA-2 will put out an amplified version of what goes in. If the input to the XPA-2 is musical, the so will be it's output.
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Post by garbulky on Jan 10, 2014 12:37:28 GMT -5
What I would do is spend 900 bucks and add a few more and buy new speakers. I' not sayingyour speakers sound bad but it is the best component to upgrade for your setup. For instgance, check out Tekton's M-lore speaker ($700) or EMotiva's upcoming tower speaker. At this time, I have no power amp at all so, I have to get that first and then try to upgrade my speakers when funds allow I may have forgotten to mention, having no amp at all at this time sorry! Also ats acoustic panels would be a good investment. As for musical sounding amps. I';ve heard the XPA-2 gen 1's. I doubt you would be dissapointed with them at all. And they do appreciate a good pre-amp. It has lots of power. I doubt you'd go wrong with that amp. However this is where you should spend your money in terms of value Speakers. Acoustic panels. Dacs. Amps. Everything else comes a distant last. I gotcha. So you need an amp. I have the UPA-2 and they used to be emotiva's lowest end offering. But you know what....they are really good amps. Since you've had power amps before I would recomend honestly....any Emo amp whose price reaches your budget limit. Every dollar you put into them is worth it. XPA-200, XPA-2, XPA-1 L you cant go wrong. |
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DYohn
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Post by DYohn on Jan 10, 2014 12:39:16 GMT -5
In all my years of dealing with audio I can't say I've ever used an amp that didn't "sound musical" when it was amplifying music.
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Post by monkumonku on Jan 10, 2014 12:45:13 GMT -5
In all my years of dealing with audio I can't say I've ever used an amp that didn't "sound musical" when it was amplifying music. Depends on the source. Some music is more musical than other music.  And as for the amp itself, haven't you heard of the descriptions like the amp has good musical pace or rhythm or timing or tone or pitch or speed or chocolatey goodness to it? Reviewers like to use that so isn't that valid? |
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DYohn
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Post by DYohn on Jan 10, 2014 13:11:06 GMT -5
In all my years of dealing with audio I can't say I've ever used an amp that didn't "sound musical" when it was amplifying music. Depends on the source. Some music is more musical than other music. And as for the amp itself, haven't you heard of the descriptions like the amp has good musical pace or rhythm or timing or tone or pitch or speed or chocolatey goodness to it? Reviewers like to use that so isn't that valid? Excuse me while I vomit...  |
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p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 10, 2014 13:48:06 GMT -5
I gotcha. So you need an amp. I have the UPA-2 and they used to be emotiva's lowest end offering. But you know what....they are really good amps. Since you've had power amps before I would recomend honestly....any Emo amp whose price reaches your budget limit. Every dollar you put into them is worth it. XPA-200, XPA-2, XPA-1 L you cant go wrong. Exactly, Thank you very much! |
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p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 10, 2014 14:35:10 GMT -5
In all my years of dealing with audio I can't say I've ever used an amp that didn't "sound musical" when it was amplifying music. Musical is an expression used when the sound reproduced, sounds like actual musical instruments such as drums which I play myself, guitars, pianos, violins, etc. voices that sound like natural voices/life like because, some equipment is good for HT but sounds like crap when attempting to reproduce music where the instruments and voices come no where close, to a live band and do not sound natural but, they sure can make a lot of noise on HT. It didn't take long at all, on this forum to get insulted so, I guess I'm done here! To the people who were respectful, I thank you very much. |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Jan 10, 2014 15:26:24 GMT -5
I'm actually waiting to find an amplifier that changes the speed of the music.... that should be very interesting...  Kidding aside, though, I do sort of know what some of them mean.... If you have something in a system that really chews up the transients, or has enough distortion, it can make music that starts out "bouncy and lively" end up sounding "dull and listless" - which could make it *seem* like it's actually playing more slowly (of course it really isn't). By kind of blurring everything over it sort of makes it seem like the action is slowed down.... Likewise, it is often claimed that, since the music is just an accompaniment to the video in a movie, the sound quality doesn't matter as much. (I'll admit, for years I listened to a crappy TV that wasn't even hooked up to the stereo - and it worked just fine for watching movies.) If you take that view, then an amp that could play real loud, but had poor sound quality, could be said to work for video, yet not be very "musical".... meaning that it works well enough for video for doesn't sound good with music. Of course, what this all comes down to is that an amp that is "musical" sounds good with music.... and ALL of our amps sound REALLY REALLY GOOD with music - so no worries there. I'm hoping that's what they mean; otherwise, of course, they're just daft  In all my years of dealing with audio I can't say I've ever used an amp that didn't "sound musical" when it was amplifying music. Depends on the source. Some music is more musical than other music. And as for the amp itself, haven't you heard of the descriptions like the amp has good musical pace or rhythm or timing or tone or pitch or speed or chocolatey goodness to it? Reviewers like to use that so isn't that valid? |
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p5200
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Post by p5200 on Jan 10, 2014 19:29:33 GMT -5
I'm actually waiting to find an amplifier that changes the speed of the music.... that should be very interesting... Kidding aside, though, I do sort of know what some of them mean.... If you have something in a system that really chews up the transients, or has enough distortion, it can make music that starts out "bouncy and lively" end up sounding "dull and listless" - which could make it *seem* like it's actually playing more slowly (of course it really isn't). By kind of blurring everything over it sort of makes it seem like the action is slowed down.... Likewise, it is often claimed that, since the music is just an accompaniment to the video in a movie, the sound quality doesn't matter as much. (I'll admit, for years I listened to a crappy TV that wasn't even hooked up to the stereo - and it worked just fine for watching movies.) If you take that view, then an amp that could play real loud, but had poor sound quality, could be said to work for video, yet not be very "musical".... meaning that it works well enough for video for doesn't sound good with music. Of course, what this all comes down to is that an amp that is "musical" sounds good with music.... and ALL of our amps sound REALLY REALLY GOOD with music - so no worries there. I'm hoping that's what they mean; otherwise, of course, they're just daft Exactly the point I was trying to express, thanks Keith! Depends on the source. Some music is more musical than other music. And as for the amp itself, haven't you heard of the descriptions like the amp has good musical pace or rhythm or timing or tone or pitch or speed or chocolatey goodness to it? Reviewers like to use that so isn't that valid? |
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