lexicon lx7 or emotiva xpa2 and 5

[tommy89]

Guys I'm running a lexicon lx7 bridged at 400 watts and sounds great.
I have an xmc1 so I would like my stuff to match. Thinking of getting xpa2 and hooking my xpa 5 back up.
Would I be lloosing anything by doing this

[knucklehead]

I doubt you'll be losing anything. Amps by their design do little or nothing to color the sound. Source and preamp have more to do with sound quality.

[emotifan]

Aug 12, 2015 19:11:42 GMT -5 knucklehead said:

I doubt you'll be losing anything. Amps by their design do little or nothing to color the sound. Source and preamp have more to do with sound quality.

I'm going to have to disagree with Knucklehead on this statement. Some of the biggest differences in sound from one electronic component to another (besides speakers) in my experience has been between different amplifiers. Sometimes so drastically you would think you were comparing different speakers. Most company's goals are to produce components that emulate straight wire with gain and they all attempt to achieve this with different topologies and circuit designs. The differences in power output alone can account for huge differences in sound and performance between amplifiers. The performance of the XPA-2 is so strong that I can confidently say you would not lose any quality in sound since it compares favorably to amplifiers many thousands of dollars higher in price. Could it sound different? Quite possibly. Will it? Only your ears can tell you. One thing I think you can rest easy over is you won't sacrifice anything in separation going to the XPA-2 from mono blocks. Audioholics said they've never tested an amplifier with channel separation measurements as good as the XPA-2, including many mono block designs. My ears confirm this. Stereo imaging from my XPA-2 is simply magical.

[pedrocols]

Aug 13, 2015 10:44:21 GMT -5 emotifan said:

Aug 12, 2015 19:11:42 GMT -5 knucklehead said:

I doubt you'll be losing anything. Amps by their design do little or nothing to color the sound. Source and preamp have more to do with sound quality.

I'm going to have to disagree with Knucklehead on this statement. Some of the biggest differences in sound from one electronic component to another (besides speakers) in my experience has been between different amplifiers. Sometimes so drastically you would think you were comparing different speakers. Most company's goals are to produce components that emulate straight wire with gain and they all attempt to achieve this with different topologies and circuit designs. The differences in power output alone can account for huge differences in sound and performance between amplifiers. The performance of the XPA-2 is so strong that I can confidently say you would not lose any quality in sound since it compares favorably to amplifiers many thousands of dollars higher in price. Could it sound different? Quite possibly. Will it? Only your ears can tell you. One thing I think you can rest easy over is you won't sacrifice anything in separation going to the XPA-2 from mono blocks. Audioholics said they've never tested an amplifier with channel separation measurements as good as the XPA-2, including many mono block designs. My ears confirm this. Stereo imaging from my XPA-2 is simply magical.

I think different amps can make a difference. I do however disagree with your statement about " power output alone can account for huge differences in sound and performance betwwen amplifiers." I have own five emo amps and could not tell a difference between them even thought the power difference was 200wpc.

[knucklehead]

Aug 13, 2015 10:44:21 GMT -5 emotifan said:

Aug 12, 2015 19:11:42 GMT -5 knucklehead said:

I doubt you'll be losing anything. Amps by their design do little or nothing to color the sound. Source and preamp have more to do with sound quality.

I'm going to have to disagree with Knucklehead on this statement. Some of the biggest differences in sound from one electronic component to another (besides speakers) in my experience has been between different amplifiers. Sometimes so drastically you would think you were comparing different speakers. Most company's goals are to produce components that emulate straight wire with gain and they all attempt to achieve this with different topologies and circuit designs. The differences in power output alone can account for huge differences in sound and performance between amplifiers. The performance of the XPA-2 is so strong that I can confidently say you would not lose any quality in sound since it compares favorably to amplifiers many thousands of dollars higher in price. Could it sound different? Quite possibly. Will it? Only your ears can tell you. One thing I think you can rest easy over is you won't sacrifice anything in separation going to the XPA-2 from mono blocks. Audioholics said they've never tested an amplifier with channel separation measurements as good as the XPA-2, including many mono block designs. My ears confirm this. Stereo imaging from my XPA-2 is simply magical.

Try not to confuse subjective and factual information. You are stating your subjective experience as factual. Common mistake - why not try to make a few bucks from your uncommon ears? If you can. I've owned a lot of audio gear over the years - speakers make a large difference - amp? Not so much - if any. Until you've tried and distinguished yourself as an exceptional 'hearer' you have zero proof. Yet hundreds of DBX tests over many years say exactly the opposite of what you are saying. Then there is the McGurk Effect. Just looking at that monstrous mono-block amp tells your brain it HAS to sound better. More BS IMO.  The only humans that are immune to the McGurk Effect are blind.

[garbulky]

The McGurk effect shows how easily your brain can be fooled by similar events. An interesting though not quite 100% analog of that (since it is auditory and not visual) is DBX. Nearly identical sounds at the same volume and they expect our brains to be able spot the differences reliably.

[emotifan]

Aug 13, 2015 13:37:35 GMT -5 knucklehead said:

Aug 13, 2015 10:44:21 GMT -5 emotifan said:

I'm going to have to disagree with Knucklehead on this statement. Some of the biggest differences in sound from one electronic component to another (besides speakers) in my experience has been between different amplifiers. Sometimes so drastically you would think you were comparing different speakers. Most company's goals are to produce components that emulate straight wire with gain and they all attempt to achieve this with different topologies and circuit designs. The differences in power output alone can account for huge differences in sound and performance between amplifiers. The performance of the XPA-2 is so strong that I can confidently say you would not lose any quality in sound since it compares favorably to amplifiers many thousands of dollars higher in price. Could it sound different? Quite possibly. Will it? Only your ears can tell you. One thing I think you can rest easy over is you won't sacrifice anything in separation going to the XPA-2 from mono blocks. Audioholics said they've never tested an amplifier with channel separation measurements as good as the XPA-2, including many mono block designs. My ears confirm this. Stereo imaging from my XPA-2 is simply magical.

Try not to confuse subjective and factual information. You are stating your subjective experience as factual. Common mistake - why not try to make a few bucks from your uncommon ears? If you can. I've owned a lot of audio gear over the years - speakers make a large difference - amp? Not so much - if any. Until you've tried and distinguished yourself as an exceptional 'hearer' you have zero proof. Yet hundreds of DBX tests over many years say exactly the opposite of what you are saying. Then there is the McGurk Effect. Just looking at that monstrous mono-block amp tells your brain it HAS to sound better. More BS IMO.  The only humans that are immune to the McGurk Effect are blind.

Well maybe 'huge' was too strong a word. Significant isn't though. I'm not surprised you don't here much of a difference between Emo amps considering they all have very generous power supplies and supply capacitance. A number of years ago I replaced my long used Adcom GFA 535 with an Adcom GFA 5500 and trust me, the difference in that instance was huge. It was like my speakers got twice as big or something and the difference was measurable in the bass. A 30 hz tone was over three db higher through the 5500. The XPA-2 actually sounds closer to the GFA-5500 than the 535 from the same company did. The difference in stereo imaging was so significant I ended up selling a Carver C9 Sonic Hologram Generator because I felt I no longer needed it to achieve the holographic imaging I enjoy. Here again the XPA-2 produces this effect but with a deeper sound stage at the same time. When I can here an instrument that seems to be coming as much as three to five feet outside the placement of a speaker through one amp when another places that same instrument directly behind the speaker, I'm not imagining that.

[rcheliguy]

At lower volumes it may be very hard to distinguish between most amplifiers.
At higher volumes the power reserve is very important.

For my uses the XPA-2 may be a bit of overkill in the power department, but I don't worry about it running out of oomph

I'm finding that Speakers make the most difference followed very closely by the room setup.

A room with the speakers not positioned correctly, and without sound treatments impacts sound quality FAR more negatively than thousands of dollars in amp / preamp dollars can make up for.