Post by kurthaudio on Aug 3, 2014 22:09:03 GMT -5
I'm not much of a poster here on the lounge more of a lurker but, after about a week with my new XPA1s I felt the need to tell everyone how great these monos are.
I've owned several high end amps through the years Outlaw, Sunfire, Mcintosh, and a few others. Most recently was a XPA-2 I scored preowned for $550.
My Sunfire had stopped working. I wasn't going to get it fixed, so i needed an amp fast. The XPA2 was just supposed to be a fill gap until I saved up enough money for a nice used Krell or McIntosh.
To my surprise, the XPA2 sounded very good! So good I hesitated to buy anything else. I lived quite happily with the 2 for about 6 months when the bug to find something "better" bit again.
My thoughts were if the XPA2 sounds this good the XPA-1s must be great. Boy was I right!
The xpa1s do everything the xpa2 does only better. The highs are more airy. The mids are completely grain free. The bass is solid with punch, but the detail is jaw dropping! a power amps job is to stay out of the way of the source signal and just make it louder. That's exactly what the 1s do. These are the most powerful amps I've had in my system and I expected them to be more forceful sort of speak. But their not. Effortless would be a good word to describe their power. The class A mode is silky smooth almost like tubes but without the coloration. Class A/B sounds so close to A that it's almost a tie, but with a high quality source I can hear subtle differences. Mostly in mid range on up. It's slightly less fatiguing.
I couldn't be happier! factor in the 20% club discount and I feel like I stole these baby's. Even at full retail of 1099 each and your still getting a great deal. I no longer wonder what other amps sound like. I could live with the XPA-1s for the rest of my life
Thank you Emotiva!
I've owned several high end amps through the years Outlaw, Sunfire, Mcintosh, and a few others. Most recently was a XPA-2 I scored preowned for $550.
My Sunfire had stopped working. I wasn't going to get it fixed, so i needed an amp fast. The XPA2 was just supposed to be a fill gap until I saved up enough money for a nice used Krell or McIntosh.
To my surprise, the XPA2 sounded very good! So good I hesitated to buy anything else. I lived quite happily with the 2 for about 6 months when the bug to find something "better" bit again.
My thoughts were if the XPA2 sounds this good the XPA-1s must be great. Boy was I right!
The xpa1s do everything the xpa2 does only better. The highs are more airy. The mids are completely grain free. The bass is solid with punch, but the detail is jaw dropping! a power amps job is to stay out of the way of the source signal and just make it louder. That's exactly what the 1s do. These are the most powerful amps I've had in my system and I expected them to be more forceful sort of speak. But their not. Effortless would be a good word to describe their power. The class A mode is silky smooth almost like tubes but without the coloration. Class A/B sounds so close to A that it's almost a tie, but with a high quality source I can hear subtle differences. Mostly in mid range on up. It's slightly less fatiguing.
I couldn't be happier! factor in the 20% club discount and I feel like I stole these baby's. Even at full retail of 1099 each and your still getting a great deal. I no longer wonder what other amps sound like. I could live with the XPA-1s for the rest of my life
Thank you Emotiva!
