Post by strindl on Apr 27, 2009 22:37:13 GMT -5
I just received my XPA-5 this afternoon and have spent a few hours now listening to it on my living room, mainly audio system. It will eventually find it's home in my main family room home theater system running the surrounds, but I wanted to see what it could do running a pair of magnepan 1.6qr's first.
First off, as other have stated, this is a big heavy piece of iron to maneuver around. The fedex driver was a woman, and there was no way she would have been able to haul it to my front door, so she rang my doorbell first and I helped her get it out of her truck and into my front hallway.
Once she had left, I brought it into my living room, pulled the Nelson Pass designed Threshold s-500e out of the way and replaced it with the xpa-5. This is how it looked:
I used the balanced outputs from my 990 to hook the main fronts to two of the amps on the XPA-5. I attempted to plug my Kimber speaker wire with the dual banana plugs on the end into the 5 way binding posts on the back of the emotiva, and noticed that the spacing on those binding posts is wider than on the Threshold. The dual banana plugs won't work. Luckily, I had some single banana plugs laying around and swapped those for the duals, and I was ready to energize.
It powered right up and even though I only had two channels hooked up, all 5 LED status lights glowed nicely.
I had it hooked through the balanced inputs to an Outlaw 990 with the source being a Logitech Duet network streaming system through my wireless network and connected to the 990 through a digital coax feed. My one thousand plus CD collection has all been ripped in the wma - lossless format to my main computer and that is how I listen to my music. It sounds every bit as good as listening from my CD player direct.
The Threshold amp that I normally use for this system is rated at 250 watts per channel at 8 ohms and 500 at 4 ohms . It's about 18 years old but in perfect shape and still works as it did when new. It sold for $3800.00 18 years ago.
The first thing I did when I turned the system on, was listen for noise that shouldn't be there..either mechanical hum at the amplifier chassis itself or any hiss or hum through the magnepans. I was greeted with dead silence from both. With my ear pressed up to the tweeter panel of the magnepans, I could just barely detect a slight hiss. If I moved my ear an inch away...nothing. That is as it should be.
I then grabbed my Duet remote, settled back into my recliner and scrolled through my music collection looking for something appropriate. I chose an artist and song I have used for years to demo audio equipment, Joan Baez singing Diamonds and Rust. As soon as I heard the acoustic guitar opening followed by her soaring vocals, I had a very satisfied grin on my face. This was what an audio system is supposed to sound like. Joan was standing in my living room singing right to me.
I ran through a variety of music that I was very familiar with on that system using the Threshold amp and was never disappointed in the XPA-5. Sonically, I can't tell the difference between them when driving the maggies.
The only difference worth noting was that the emotiva has more gain than the Threshold and required lower volume settings on the Outlaw for equal sound levels.
Physically, the Threshold and Emotiva are pretty close in size and weight. The Threshold has massive handles on the front that make it easier to maneuver around and carry though.
Here is the Threshold in the same spot where the Emotiva is at the moment...you can see those handles.
I'll keep it in my living room system for another day or so before taking it to the family room. I want to listen again tomorrow and see if my perceptions are the same. Once I have it in the family room, I will hook it up to the Thiel 3.6 speakers that are normally driven by a pure class A Threshold SA4/e monster of an amp. That one is about 16 years old and sold for $6300.00 when new.
First off, as other have stated, this is a big heavy piece of iron to maneuver around. The fedex driver was a woman, and there was no way she would have been able to haul it to my front door, so she rang my doorbell first and I helped her get it out of her truck and into my front hallway.
Once she had left, I brought it into my living room, pulled the Nelson Pass designed Threshold s-500e out of the way and replaced it with the xpa-5. This is how it looked:
I used the balanced outputs from my 990 to hook the main fronts to two of the amps on the XPA-5. I attempted to plug my Kimber speaker wire with the dual banana plugs on the end into the 5 way binding posts on the back of the emotiva, and noticed that the spacing on those binding posts is wider than on the Threshold. The dual banana plugs won't work. Luckily, I had some single banana plugs laying around and swapped those for the duals, and I was ready to energize.
It powered right up and even though I only had two channels hooked up, all 5 LED status lights glowed nicely.
I had it hooked through the balanced inputs to an Outlaw 990 with the source being a Logitech Duet network streaming system through my wireless network and connected to the 990 through a digital coax feed. My one thousand plus CD collection has all been ripped in the wma - lossless format to my main computer and that is how I listen to my music. It sounds every bit as good as listening from my CD player direct.
The Threshold amp that I normally use for this system is rated at 250 watts per channel at 8 ohms and 500 at 4 ohms . It's about 18 years old but in perfect shape and still works as it did when new. It sold for $3800.00 18 years ago.
The first thing I did when I turned the system on, was listen for noise that shouldn't be there..either mechanical hum at the amplifier chassis itself or any hiss or hum through the magnepans. I was greeted with dead silence from both. With my ear pressed up to the tweeter panel of the magnepans, I could just barely detect a slight hiss. If I moved my ear an inch away...nothing. That is as it should be.
I then grabbed my Duet remote, settled back into my recliner and scrolled through my music collection looking for something appropriate. I chose an artist and song I have used for years to demo audio equipment, Joan Baez singing Diamonds and Rust. As soon as I heard the acoustic guitar opening followed by her soaring vocals, I had a very satisfied grin on my face. This was what an audio system is supposed to sound like. Joan was standing in my living room singing right to me.
I ran through a variety of music that I was very familiar with on that system using the Threshold amp and was never disappointed in the XPA-5. Sonically, I can't tell the difference between them when driving the maggies.
The only difference worth noting was that the emotiva has more gain than the Threshold and required lower volume settings on the Outlaw for equal sound levels.
Physically, the Threshold and Emotiva are pretty close in size and weight. The Threshold has massive handles on the front that make it easier to maneuver around and carry though.
Here is the Threshold in the same spot where the Emotiva is at the moment...you can see those handles.
I'll keep it in my living room system for another day or so before taking it to the family room. I want to listen again tomorrow and see if my perceptions are the same. Once I have it in the family room, I will hook it up to the Thiel 3.6 speakers that are normally driven by a pure class A Threshold SA4/e monster of an amp. That one is about 16 years old and sold for $6300.00 when new.
