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Post by mr on Dec 29, 2017 13:12:09 GMT -5
I am going to purchase one of these amps as soon as I sell my XPA-5.
Due diligence here says there was a problem with overheating with the A-5175 earlier. This unit is my first choice, assuming the heating issue has been resolved.
Any other issues I need to know about? With either amp?
The A-500 might work fine with my SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers, but I would prefer as much headroom as possible, so I am leaning toward the A-5175. I will be adding a cooling fan to my cabinet which will also house my XMC-1.
Any input will be appreciated!
Thanks,
MIKE
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Post by mshump on Dec 29, 2017 13:37:35 GMT -5
I would suggest calling Emotiva concerning the overheating issues, they will have more accurate data then us here. I would want the A-5175 also, if I was buying a new amp for the extra headroom
Mark
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Post by garbulky on Dec 29, 2017 16:33:36 GMT -5
Make it fit! lol.
Go for the 5-175
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Post by jimbob242011 on Jan 5, 2018 15:39:04 GMT -5
The heat issue with the A-5175 has been resolved. It was a resistor issue, and they are all good to go. They don't even feel warm now. I have now installed 2 of these... it is a great amp, you will be most pleased. P.s... why are you selling the XPA-5 ? |
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Post by leonski on Jan 5, 2018 16:22:58 GMT -5
Is the intent an UPgrade or a SIDEgrade?
I don't think the 5175 is necessarily an upgrade. Especially over the well regarded XPA-5
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Post by mr on Jan 13, 2018 12:50:59 GMT -5
I sold the XPA-5 because of a size issue. The 5175 will fit in wife's cabinetry, the XPA-5 would not fit. Even with removing part of the back, could not close the doors.
So I guess it is a SIDEgrade, or a SIZEgrade.
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Post by quamman on Jan 13, 2018 13:29:54 GMT -5
I am going to purchase one of these amps as soon as I sell my XPA-5. Due diligence here says there was a problem with overheating with the A-5175 earlier. This unit is my first choice, assuming the heating issue has been resolved. Any other issues I need to know about? With either amp? The A-500 might work fine with my SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers, but I would prefer as much headroom as possible, so I am leaning toward the A-5175. I will be adding a cooling fan to my cabinet which will also house my XMC-1. Any input will be appreciated! Thanks, MIKEI currently have the A-5175 and it is a good strong amp and sounds great on my la Scala’s. Just last night I noticed mine got really hot so I have to contact them about getting it corrected. They sent me an email back in October making me aware of the possible issue of heat and said it was due to a biased resister and should I experience it to contact them . I had it on for a couple of hours and it was in idle while I was listening to my newly acquired XPA2 tonwhich not the 5175 is running center and surround duty. |
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Post by leonski on Jan 13, 2018 16:43:09 GMT -5
A suck-thru fan may work IF you are vented on the bottom and install an intake FILTER. Exhaust HIGH where the warm air wants to go, anyway.
Several fans from NOCTUA would work, run on 6 to 12vdc and are insanely quiet.
don't just blow hot air around
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 13, 2018 17:55:02 GMT -5
What about the Outlaw Model 5000? Looks like a winner to me - and it's $100 less than the 5175. Dimensions are similar at 6.0" x 17.0" x 16.75" HxWxD)- weight is an even 50 pounds according to the manual. I have the Outlaw 7075 with 75wpc into 8 ohms. 115wpc into 4 ohms all channels driven. Its a svelte 41#. Either amp should work just fine but you might explore other options. If heat is an issue a Rotel 1085 class d amp goes for around $500 used. 100wpc of clean class d. 180wpc into 4 ohms - it uses the Bang & Olefsen modules. I had one for a time and found it to be more than enough for my setup. At 15 pounds it is the lightest 5 channel amp I've owned. The heaviest was the XPA-5. I had it with an XPA-2 and together they damn near collapsed my entertainment center.
IMO there are very few HT owners that need such heavy duty high power amps. It's when they get low efficiency that big power amps are needed. HT is (or should be) all about high efficiency - or should be. Speaker manufacturers like JTR have very high efficiency speakers - like 100db and more. Klipsch is popular for HT for that reason. A decent AVR will cause deafness before they clip. I don't know what the efficiency of your SVS speakers are but SVS is usually around the 92-94db mark. Easy to drive - as you've found out.
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Post by leonski on Jan 13, 2018 18:12:48 GMT -5
No question that high sensitivity speakers make the most of any amp. The trick is to find such speakers you like.
Knuck? Is that a karman Ghia in your picture? I heard the Japanese were going to make a copy called the Karman Gheisha.
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 13, 2018 19:10:55 GMT -5
No question that high sensitivity speakers make the most of any amp. The trick is to find such speakers you like. Knuck? Is that a karman Ghia in your picture? I heard the Japanese were going to make a copy called the Karman Gheisha. Yeah - that's my 71. They are getting to be rare. Only 21,000 were made in 71. In contrast, VW made 1,291,612 bugs that year. I did own an even more rare one, a 74 about 30 years ago. Only 5200 were made in 74 - and sadly that was the last year for the Ghia. The air cooled VW would live on until 2004 - Mexico and Brazil made most of the VW bugs after VW quit importing them in 79 and stopped all German production in 80 for the bugs. Many of those 1979 bugs were converts I haven't heard about this Gheisha before. Pun? Methinks - yes! VW has shown a concept car of an updated & modernized Ghia. I can't find a link ATM - I'll post it if I find it, but it was only a drawing. It looked good from what I saw. Better than the VW 'New' Beetle that I see all over the place. I'm just glad none of the American car manufacturers made VWs. From the little bug that emerged from the ruins of WWII until production halted in 2004 the VW beetle remained true to it's origins - both in size and profile. Few other car manufacturers have ever done that. Ford did it with the Model T but that was in a much shorter span - and 21m were produced. Hot commodity it was! Can you imagine what GM or Ford would have done to the Beetle? Well - someone took a decent stab at it.  |
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Post by leonski on Jan 13, 2018 20:06:53 GMT -5
Nothing WORSE than a Japanese Beetle. Just ask any Tree Guy.
I had a '73 SuperBeetle which had the Strut front end and recirculating ball steering. Handled well, once I decided on about 23PSI front / 28PSI rear. tire pressures.
I even went to the Porsche dealer and got the 5 1/2" x 15" 'take offs' from the 914 which fit, but were not quite the perfect offset. I had to make spacers for the front, to
prevent tire rub on the spring.
Only had 46 or 48 HP, so it was slower than the couple previous years.
I had a GF who owned a late model Ghia which had the 'automatic stick shift' The wires were a real PIA and faulted too often. She ended up with a 'Z' car, one of the jump seat models, so maybe
that'll narrow down the year and sub-model.
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Post by tchaik on Jan 14, 2018 23:35:53 GMT -5
What about the Outlaw Model 5000? Looks like a winner to me - and it's $100 less than the 5175. Dimensions are similar at 6.0" x 17.0" x 16.75" HxWxD)- weight is an even 50 pounds according to the manual. I have the Outlaw 7075 with 75wpc into 8 ohms. 115wpc into 4 ohms all channels driven. Its a svelte 41#. Either amp should work just fine but you might explore other options. If heat is an issue a Rotel 1085 class d amp goes for around $500 used. 100wpc of clean class d. 180wpc into 4 ohms - it uses the Bang & Olefsen modules. I had one for a time and found it to be more than enough for my setup. At 15 pounds it is the lightest 5 channel amp I've owned. The heaviest was the XPA-5. I had it with an XPA-2 and together they damn near collapsed my entertainment center. IMO there are very few HT owners that need such heavy duty high power amps. It's when they get low efficiency that big power amps are needed. HT is (or should be) all about high efficiency - or should be. Speaker manufacturers like JTR have very high efficiency speakers - like 100db and more. Klipsch is popular for HT for that reason. A decent AVR will cause deafness before they clip. I don't know what the efficiency of your SVS speakers are but SVS is usually around the 92-94db mark. Easy to drive - as you've found out. just one correction. most all SVS speakers are typically around 87 or 88db efficient. just checked on their web page. but even with that efficiency the emotiva amp will drive them to uncomfortably loud levels as will the outlaw amps listed in knuckleheads response.. Tchaik........... |
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Post by leonski on Jan 15, 2018 2:34:57 GMT -5
88 or 87db sensitivity isn't all that bad. What would make 'em awful and require a VERY capable amplifier would be if the phase angles were out of wack.
At the modest price points in question, NOBODY makes a speaker which a reasonable HT receiver couldn't drive. I don't see these being an exception.
EMO amps shouldn't have any problems.
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Post by jimbob242011 on Jan 15, 2018 8:50:13 GMT -5
A suck-thru fan may work IF you are vented on the bottom and install an intake FILTER. Exhaust HIGH where the warm air wants to go, anyway. Several fans from NOCTUA would work, run on 6 to 12vdc and are insanely quiet. don't just blow hot air around Good advice, but in quamman's case, there is no need to add noisy fans. lf you do have one that's a couple of months old and the top feels hot (like quamman's), contact Emotiva to have it fixed immediately! They will get VERY warm if you have one of these, and that heat is horrible for the output transistors (and just about everything else for that matter). This heat will shorten the lifespan of the amp's components, so I cannot stress enough the need to have the units impacted by this issue fixed immediately. Also this issue was not limited to the A-5175, as I know the A-500 was also included, and I suspect the entire basx series. Anyways, the issue has been resolved, so you should feel comfortable in knowing that any new amp you might purchase will run as cool as the arctic snow, and sound absolutely fantastic! |
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Post by leonski on Jan 15, 2018 14:09:19 GMT -5
Internally cooking itself IS serious and requires fix. In normal use, at higher levels AND in restricted airspace? A fan is a good idea. But I'm not talking about a normal box fan which sounds like a helicopter landing on your roof. Nope. Best QUIET fan might be the NOCTUA. noctua.at/en/products/fanSome require a PWM power supply, which is new to me, but some of the older models can make do on 12vdc which is easy. A PWM PS MIGHT introduce noise into a system. I don't know. It is a 2nd or 3rd cousin to a 'D' amp, maybe? but won't be as well shielded. |
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KeithL
Administrator 
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Post by KeithL on Jan 15, 2018 15:17:23 GMT -5
All else being equal, who wouldn't want the highest efficiency possible? The only catch is that all else is rarely equal. In fact, when designing speakers, designing for the highest possible efficiency almost always requires serious compromises in other areas. (And moving up to a more powerful amplifier is often a far cheaper alternative than finding a speaker that combines equally good sound with much higher efficiency.) No question that high sensitivity speakers make the most of any amp. The trick is to find such speakers you like. Knuck? Is that a karman Ghia in your picture? I heard the Japanese were going to make a copy called the Karman Gheisha. |
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KeithL
Administrator
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Post by KeithL on Jan 15, 2018 15:19:14 GMT -5
Absolutely. There was a specific bias issue with certain A-5175 amps; and, if you have one that gets very hot, then it most certainly should be fixed. (This issue was unique to the A-5175 - and only certain units experienced it.) A suck-thru fan may work IF you are vented on the bottom and install an intake FILTER. Exhaust HIGH where the warm air wants to go, anyway. Several fans from NOCTUA would work, run on 6 to 12vdc and are insanely quiet. don't just blow hot air around Good advice, but in quamman's case, there is no need to add noisy fans. lf you do have one that's a couple of months old and the top feels hot (like quamman's), contact Emotiva to have it fixed immediately! They will get VERY warm if you have one of these, and that heat is horrible for the output transistors (and just about everything else for that matter). This heat will shorten the lifespan of the amp's components, so I cannot stress enough the need to have the units impacted by this issue fixed immediately. Also this issue was not limited to the A-5175, as I know the A-500 was also included, and I suspect the entire basx series. Anyways, the issue has been resolved, so you should feel comfortable in knowing that any new amp you might purchase will run as cool as the arctic snow, and sound absolutely fantastic! |
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Post by leonski on Jan 15, 2018 15:28:24 GMT -5
All else being equal, who wouldn't want the highest efficiency possible? The only catch is that all else is rarely equal. In fact, when designing speakers, designing for the highest possible efficiency almost always requires serious compromises in other areas. (And moving up to a more powerful amplifier is often a far cheaper alternative than finding a speaker that combines equally good sound with much higher efficiency.) No question that high sensitivity speakers make the most of any amp. The trick is to find such speakers you like. Knuck? Is that a karman Ghia in your picture? I heard the Japanese were going to make a copy called the Karman Gheisha. I for one don't really care that much about sensitivity of my speakers. I've never found such speakers with the combination of characteristics found in my Panels. The advent of 'inexpensive' but GOOD watts has made all the difference. And besides, Magnepan, except for being low sensitivity, is NOT a bad load for any reasonable amp. I made my remarks aimed mainly at the HT crowd where most of the amps in receivers range between Feeble and Hardly Ok. Exceptions may exist, but ANY amp with a 6ohm minimum and a 'switch' for impedance is NOT in my 'buy it now' category. HT speakers are rarely such an awful load that the typical receivers amp has a bad time, except perhaps in a large space at elevated levels. Not in the mainstream use, anyway. |
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Post by jimbob242011 on Jan 15, 2018 16:12:45 GMT -5
Absolutely. There was a specific bias issue with certain A-5175 amps; and, if you have one that gets very hot, then it most certainly should be fixed. (This issue was unique to the A-5175 - and only certain units experienced it.) Good advice, but in quamman's case, there is no need to add noisy fans. lf you do have one that's a couple of months old and the top feels hot (like quamman's), contact Emotiva to have it fixed immediately! They will get VERY warm if you have one of these, and that heat is horrible for the output transistors (and just about everything else for that matter). This heat will shorten the lifespan of the amp's components, so I cannot stress enough the need to have the units impacted by this issue fixed immediately. Also this issue was not limited to the A-5175, as I know the A-500 was also included, and I suspect the entire basx series. Anyways, the issue has been resolved, so you should feel comfortable in knowing that any new amp you might purchase will run as cool as the arctic snow, and sound absolutely fantastic! Then I must have misunderstood hilodb1 when he said his A-500 was in for service as well. Must have been for something else. |
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