Post by torphoto on May 2, 2009 14:15:42 GMT -5
I'm new here and just got my UPA-7 a few days ago. I must say here and the avs forum has been very helpful in helping me with my decision. I also have to mention how helpful all the People at emotiva were to me during this, a definite relief compared to most other companies and I think they need to take a lesson from Jennifer at Emotiva in customer service. Especially their testing of items to be shipped outside the US , it is reassuring to know that you will be getting a unit that is known fully functional and not hit or miss as I have experienced with many other online electronic items and to Cathy and Nick emailing me shipping updates.
Well I won't go into this little review speaking about the obvious aspects of the UPA-7 most will know, like the size, weight and tank like construction. Then again you can not mention emotiva and not think of those aspects now can you? Once I opened the box and got over the initial surprise of the units size and the hernia inducing weight and placed it near my system ( off to the side on a desk ) and drank a bottle of gatoraide from the work out carrying it inside I looked at my yamaha 1800 and wondered how could it possibly output the same power as this new monster, more on that later.
I let my girlfriend hook everything up ( she wanted to ), replacing the packed 3 prong plug with a longer one that would reach to my apc line conditioner and started slow testing, first just powering it up before plugging the speakers in, then powering it up with the speakers connected, no noise thump or hiss. Now just connecting the 1800 pre outs, still quiet and then the 12v trigger to test turning it on and off, that worked just fine and then we decided to give it a go.
First test was just to now see if we can get audio out, I already had the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 bluray in the player so we just started at -40 volume on the receiver and turned up the volume slowly to -20 ( our usual listening volume ). Now I was not sure what to expect but what we did notice right away was the difference in channel separation, It was VERY obvious to us since we just watched that movie before and everything was fresh in our memory. This was using the same settings in the 1800 with out any changes, we rushed and reconnected the 1800 to the speakers to be certain. Yup no placebo effect here, the channel separation was noticeable.
Back to listening with the upa-7 and watching Pirates 2 all over again, this time I had a spl1000 meter with me to compare to the yammy 1800 which we noted the max hi and low from before. My girlfriend did comment that it was louder even at the same volume setting, I did not notice it was much louder and the average spl's were about the same but the peaks were 4-5 db higher than before reaching 96 db vs 91-92 with the yamaha at the same listening position 10ft away and the same volume setting. So while the loudness is about the same on average the peaks got higher and the movie experience was improved also with the better channel separation.
Ok now a few days and several re watched movies later it is time to really grill the amp with music. I use 2 modes on the 1800 to play music via itunes and my computer with the spdif out or cds from the bluray player in the 7 channel stereo or just straight modes. First lets drop in the pussycat dolls domination cd in. I normally won't put the volume past -10 on the yammy as the sound, especially in the bass starts to get muddy but with the upa-7 it was very clear and still tight with out starting to sound harsh. The highs tho really took off, I measured to 107 db at the same -10 volume setting before I set the max volume to -10, not for any other reason other than the safety of my ears. The yamaha would peak at around 101-103 db but beginning to get harsh, the upa-7 was still clean and clear. Again the channel separation was noticeable but the highs were getting out of hand, as in they sounded much higher than ever before and were running away from the bass, ( tho clear and clean ). I had to go into the yammy's sound menu and just turn it's auto eq off ( now I know why some people call yamaha's "bright" ). This warmed things up a bit and got the lows back, the highs were still HIGH and this is the first time I heard my infinity 362 fronts and 252 surrounds really open up. The speakers sound at ease and seem to want to go louder.
This prompted me to play several Bob Sinclair remixes ( Fireball "what I want" in particular one of our local artists here ) and then some old Red hot Chilly peppers. One thing that did become extremely noticeable was the quality needed to make things sound good in mp3's I may have to re rip alot of my old stuff as anything less than 192kbps sounds like crud in comparison and you can hear some crackling from variable bit rate mp3's. 320kbps is the way to go now.
Now Something to note is that I live in the Island of Trinidad in a large 30 yr old open plan house that is very difficult to AC, fans keep things cool as does the constant breeze through the open plan house but electronic items get unusually hot in the year round 30c temperatures we have here and the yamaha 1800 would get toasty at -20, uncomfortably hot at -15 and I could probably reheat food on it at -10, -5 will fry eggs ( I am not going to try it ). The UPA-7 got warm, and got a bit warmer as the volume went up but never got uncomfortable to touch, now the yamaha 1800 is just getting a bit warmer than the UPA-7 since it's amp section isn't heating up any
So far I must say I am happy with the UPA-7 especially at it's price, even after reshipping to Trinidad and paying 45% in taxes it is a bargain compared to paying $4500 usd for the equivalent nad locally, I don't even what to think of the price of a parasound amp locally. The sound in both movies and music has improved noticeably especially with the channel separation, higher peaks and high volume clarity.
Thanks alot to everyone at Emotiva.
Well I won't go into this little review speaking about the obvious aspects of the UPA-7 most will know, like the size, weight and tank like construction. Then again you can not mention emotiva and not think of those aspects now can you? Once I opened the box and got over the initial surprise of the units size and the hernia inducing weight and placed it near my system ( off to the side on a desk ) and drank a bottle of gatoraide from the work out carrying it inside I looked at my yamaha 1800 and wondered how could it possibly output the same power as this new monster, more on that later.
I let my girlfriend hook everything up ( she wanted to ), replacing the packed 3 prong plug with a longer one that would reach to my apc line conditioner and started slow testing, first just powering it up before plugging the speakers in, then powering it up with the speakers connected, no noise thump or hiss. Now just connecting the 1800 pre outs, still quiet and then the 12v trigger to test turning it on and off, that worked just fine and then we decided to give it a go.
First test was just to now see if we can get audio out, I already had the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 bluray in the player so we just started at -40 volume on the receiver and turned up the volume slowly to -20 ( our usual listening volume ). Now I was not sure what to expect but what we did notice right away was the difference in channel separation, It was VERY obvious to us since we just watched that movie before and everything was fresh in our memory. This was using the same settings in the 1800 with out any changes, we rushed and reconnected the 1800 to the speakers to be certain. Yup no placebo effect here, the channel separation was noticeable.
Back to listening with the upa-7 and watching Pirates 2 all over again, this time I had a spl1000 meter with me to compare to the yammy 1800 which we noted the max hi and low from before. My girlfriend did comment that it was louder even at the same volume setting, I did not notice it was much louder and the average spl's were about the same but the peaks were 4-5 db higher than before reaching 96 db vs 91-92 with the yamaha at the same listening position 10ft away and the same volume setting. So while the loudness is about the same on average the peaks got higher and the movie experience was improved also with the better channel separation.
Ok now a few days and several re watched movies later it is time to really grill the amp with music. I use 2 modes on the 1800 to play music via itunes and my computer with the spdif out or cds from the bluray player in the 7 channel stereo or just straight modes. First lets drop in the pussycat dolls domination cd in. I normally won't put the volume past -10 on the yammy as the sound, especially in the bass starts to get muddy but with the upa-7 it was very clear and still tight with out starting to sound harsh. The highs tho really took off, I measured to 107 db at the same -10 volume setting before I set the max volume to -10, not for any other reason other than the safety of my ears. The yamaha would peak at around 101-103 db but beginning to get harsh, the upa-7 was still clean and clear. Again the channel separation was noticeable but the highs were getting out of hand, as in they sounded much higher than ever before and were running away from the bass, ( tho clear and clean ). I had to go into the yammy's sound menu and just turn it's auto eq off ( now I know why some people call yamaha's "bright" ). This warmed things up a bit and got the lows back, the highs were still HIGH and this is the first time I heard my infinity 362 fronts and 252 surrounds really open up. The speakers sound at ease and seem to want to go louder.
This prompted me to play several Bob Sinclair remixes ( Fireball "what I want" in particular one of our local artists here ) and then some old Red hot Chilly peppers. One thing that did become extremely noticeable was the quality needed to make things sound good in mp3's I may have to re rip alot of my old stuff as anything less than 192kbps sounds like crud in comparison and you can hear some crackling from variable bit rate mp3's. 320kbps is the way to go now.
Now Something to note is that I live in the Island of Trinidad in a large 30 yr old open plan house that is very difficult to AC, fans keep things cool as does the constant breeze through the open plan house but electronic items get unusually hot in the year round 30c temperatures we have here and the yamaha 1800 would get toasty at -20, uncomfortably hot at -15 and I could probably reheat food on it at -10, -5 will fry eggs ( I am not going to try it ). The UPA-7 got warm, and got a bit warmer as the volume went up but never got uncomfortable to touch, now the yamaha 1800 is just getting a bit warmer than the UPA-7 since it's amp section isn't heating up any
So far I must say I am happy with the UPA-7 especially at it's price, even after reshipping to Trinidad and paying 45% in taxes it is a bargain compared to paying $4500 usd for the equivalent nad locally, I don't even what to think of the price of a parasound amp locally. The sound in both movies and music has improved noticeably especially with the channel separation, higher peaks and high volume clarity.
Thanks alot to everyone at Emotiva.
