keep xpa1's or get xpr2....?

[garbulky]

Mar 3, 2014 16:36:14 GMT -5 ribd11 said:

Although the two amps are close in power I think the xpr2 has higher quality internalls which would give better sound quality?

Well, that is not really indication for giving better sound quality.
1. We don't know what these internals are except for the capacitors (maybe?)
2. How much more expensive was it and how much better are these components?

There are other factors to consider.
The XPR-2 has a class H power supply which switches voltage after it gets to a certain value. It shows up as a (tiny likely inaudible) bump in distortion during power peaks. The XPA-1 has no such class H power supply (positive).
The XPA-1 has a benefit the XPR-2 does not have. It's a fully balanced differential amplifier. Which means that each channel has two amplifier circuits which function together to cancel out distortion picked up in the circuit. The XPR-2 has no such thing.
If you have say a DC-1 coupled to an XPA-1's you're signal will be fully balanced and differential from end to end. A certain type of distortion picked up through the entire audio chain is cancelled out.


The XPA-1 is a monoblock. So there is no crosstalk.

The XPA-1 gen 1 has 10 watts of class A, XPA1 gen 2 has 60 watts of class A. During this, there is no crossover notch distortion.
The XPR-2 has no listed amount of class A. However, it does consume significant current at idle which suggests that it too has some generous class A bias-ing. However what the value of the class A output it has is unknown.

But all this actually means nothing compared to how does the XPR-2 actually sound.
B'zilla has the XPR-2. I really liked its sound in his room. He has heard the XPA-1 L which he found very comparable. I haven't heard either amplifier in my room. My impressions of the XPR-2 is that it has a "refined" sound signature. Closer to the sound signature of the UPA-2 than the XPA-2 but without the "negatives" of the UPA-2. It also had "body" to the sound and weight. The body and delicate sound staging of the instruments was really nice to hear. I was quite impressed with the XPR-2. I thought it was a fine amplifier. But going from an XPA-1 to XPR-2 of the same power and downgrading from monoblocks is maybe closer to a sideways upgrade than anything.
You may be more interested in the XPR-1's...but like I said the DAC, room treatments etc is money better spent.

[ribd11]

Thank you, some very good input. As you talked about refinement, I think this is what I'd be hoping to gain...

[garbulky]

Mar 4, 2014 5:31:02 GMT -5 ribd11 said:

Thank you, some very good input. As you talked about refinement, I think this is what I'd be hoping to gain...

Gotcha. I can understand that. When the reference series came out I wondered the exact same things. They are fine amps fwiw.