XPA-1L in for repair = try PA-1s

[quattroll]

Hi Lounge,

I wanted to share my recent experience with a pair of PA-1s playing an XMC-1 source with Sonus Faber Toy Towers and sometimes a JL Audio Dominion 110 sub.

This happened because I had an internal fault in one of my XMC-1L units causing it to cease powering the channel intermittently with no fault indicated on the front panel. For some time using video sources I was finding some dialogue hard to understand (when in 2 channel direct due to dropouts) and I had not been playing much music which would have revealed this sooner. I have a system in one of my garage bays where I make metal sculpture. To keep me “company” I have a DC-1 feeding XPA-100s to Magnepan .7i s mounted upside down on the ceiling and therefore out of the way. This system sounds awesome so I just assumed my indoor setup could never be as exciting.

I think that the intermittent failure was hard to detect watching tv (because direct would put out more 5.1 than 2) but I could tell it wasn’t sounding good. So I finally discovered and diagnosed the problem and sent the unit back for repair ($100 shipping and $250 to Emo ouch!). They did a great and prompt repair, no complaints.

While using a Mini X in the meantime (very good considering), I got the itch and ordered a pair of PA-1. Helped greatly but Glenn Young’s awesome and thorough review, I set mine up when I got them and just had them on for a few hours doing nothing. Then I started to play some music (lossy Apple music stream) just to get things going without really making any judgments. But as I was doing some reading listening at low volume, I realized that the music was really drawing me in.

Over the next few days, I spent more time with them and became more and more impressed. How could these tiny and affordable amps impress me so much after all these years even with some pretty good gear?

On a practical note, I can confirm that the three prong issue happened to me using the unbalanced connections, and also that these amps don’t play well with panels (the Magnepan .7i, in the other setup). However, with the Toy Towers, they are a revelation! The speed, precision, placement of instruments and soundstage has made me want to pull out all my best music and rejoice in hifi.

So here is my take on what is happening, and I would love to hear thoughts from others. Because the Toy Towers have the slightly laid back Sonus Faber sound, they are better with a faster and more “forward” amp. They will play loud, and put out impressive bass, but they need a little more push and control in the higher regions. So I think the PA-1s shine here because they are a different sounding amp, but also because they are a really good different sounding amp.

I was listening to vinyl and cd, mostly 80s stuff, plus some newer selections like Alt-J and Lorde, and classics like Led Zeppelin and Neil Young. I look forward to playing some classical too, but I haven’t gotten to that yet.

What about the XPA-1L? Well I got my unit back and started a comparison. I found that when working properly they still sound really good, they have a powerful “live” sound to them I think. What I mean is like the kind of great sound you experience at a live performance. It has presence but is colored by the venue, the sound engineering, and the type of music on offer. I realized this while playing U2’s 360 degrees tour Blu-Ray. In back and forth testing, I liked the XPA-1Ls better. This was at higher volumes and the Edge’s guitar work in particular has real heft and draws you in to the rock melody. This is the only occasion that I found the PA-1s to sound “bright, thin, sterile” etc, a common complaint in Class-D applications.

The same thing was true playing the first several tracks of Lorde’s Pure Heroine CD. While doing this comparison, no sub was being used for some of the time, and during this the bolder sound and greater bass of the XPA-1Ls prevailed. BUT, when crossed over to the sub properly, I think the win goes to the PA-1s, whose precise transparent top and mid balanced with a fast a deep sub (JL Audio Dominon 110 is very good value) the sound is just elevated considerably.

The rest if the time, at lower volumes on music and TV, these amps continue to surprise me. The cliche of a component making the fun come back applies here for me!

My plan is to swap the 1Ls for the 100s in the garage where their greater power into 4ohms can be taken advantage of, until they quit which is a concern.

Please let me know what you guys think of all this. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[Gary Cook]

Interested in the XPA-100 versus XPA1-L comparison. I have both and the difference in my set up (with my ears) is quite subtle, especially with a vinyl source. Some CD's real a very minor difference, whilst every SACD (in stereo) has some subtle differences. Mostly it's sound stage, it's wider, higher and deeper with the XPA-1L's and a tiny bit quieter (when no music is playing). For 5.1 movies I can't really discern any difference. FWIW I also always run a sub. A good test is to connect one channel to an XPA-100 and the other channel to an XPA-1L and switch the source to mono. Match the volumes and then see if you can hear any difference.

Cheers
Gary

[quattroll]

Hi Gary,

G’day! It’s nice to hear from you as I have read many of your posts, in particular those on the merits of the two units you asked me about. I initially, I owned UPA-1s, and they brought a big car crease in dynamics and bass, of course coming from first a Marantz SR-19, and then a Pioneer Elite something midrange with HDMI. I always made sure that I had pre-out capability, so these amps were big improvements. I ran them for several years with a pair of B&W CDM7SE (2001?) that I had used since that time with the receivers I had until 2011-12? When I got the UPAs. The CDM7SEs were essentially a pre 700 series line. They were a big step up for me I and I used them for a long time. Eventually I decided to let them go in favor of the Sonus Faber Toy Towers. I liked the Toys in response to the fact that I began to feel the B&Ws were kind of bright/brittle and thought that they might be developing the “ferrofluid” dryness problem.

I mention this to underscore the difference I noted when moving from the UPAs to the XPAs. I was able to sell the UPAs locally for a great price and get three new XPA-100s for $279 each, free shipping and in those days no tax! Gen 2, so I got the cool looks, and the upgraded rca connection and speaker wire binding posts. I did manage to break an rca connection on one unit due to jamming it back on its shelf.

Anyway, as you are aware, they are a very fine sounding amp, solid and I think slightly faster and more forward than the UPAs, which is a good thing, depending on the speaker. So ironically although I considered them to be an improvement, they probably hastened my desire to move away from the B&Ws. When I moved to the Toys, their slight mellowness was an improvement.

Around this time I still had my B&W CDMSEs, the bookshelves to my towers, used in my garage. This was when I got some Magnepan MMGs off craigslist, and I was hooked right away, despite the MMGs being somewhat old. So that was definitely an advancement. Sometime after that the Gen 2 XPA-1Ls became available at their lowest price I believe, $479! So I had to do it, I was enamored of the dual differential, class A awesomeness.

Well this is when I compared both amps seriously. Was the improvement noticeable enough to subject the 1Ls to significant temperature fluctuations and dustiness warranted? I decided then that the two amps were close enough that I could not reliably blind test them, so I moved them inside and paired them with the Toys, where I found them similarly close to the 100s. So I left it that way and seldomly used class A, because that was also hard to discern, and the heat generated was borderline scary.

So hopefully I have not lost everyone here, but I think this background is fundamental to my answer to the question about these two amps. I was going to reply right away and say what I just said, which is basically the differences are slight and in the ways that Gary mentioned.

Well, I realize now that I never tried the 1Ls with the Magnepan .7i s that I sprung for after falling for the electrostat sound. Ok, BIG differences here! The resolution of these pure ribbon speakers reveal distinct differences in the amps.

So to try to convey what these are, I have a small list of music that I used to give context to my descriptions. First, and this is probably music very few can stand, I played Die Antwoord’s album which has the song “Enter the Ninja”. Strangely the disc cover I have doesn’t have an obvious title. This song is a favorite, but the whole album is well recorded, has a lot of transients, percussion, heavy bass, dj synth sounds, and quiet parts. All of that is clearly displayed and I am confident that I could pick up on this consistently.

Next up, Lorde, Pure Heroine again. I know this disc very well, as I regard the artistry, novelty, and quality mastering. The first four songs, showed more punch in the lower notes, more presence in Lorde’s voice, greater focus on the elaborate percussive elements, and the harmonics of her back up singing. Significant and again discernable.

Lastly, I played Neil Young’s Greatest Hits, and I am also very familiar with this cd. Everything I said about Lorde applies here, but the voice is male of course and the percussion is all real drums. The standout is the palpable string work on the guitars, most notably the “pluckyness” on Southern Man. Really outstanding.

So in the spirit of my original post I am now a believer in well matched speakers and amps, and I am ever more aware of how much equipment I have never heard, and probably won’t unfortunately. So I think the XPA-1Ls are better, it’s more a question of wether one’s speakers can show it. Having said that, the 100s are really good, and certainly hard to replace for their original cost.

While writing this I have been listening to the PA-1s with OMD’s Live in Berlin, and they sound better than ever! By the way I ordered on for my center. More fun ahead.

[quattroll]

I just want to add a few thoughts and clarifications.

Sorry about the typos, I did all this on my phone which is getting hard for me to see well!

The rca connection I damaged was on a UPA-1, hence my interest in the upgraded XPA-100s.

Also, my initial listening on the PA-1s was with my pre-wired balanced cables, and therefore fully balanced with the XMC-1.

My comparison between the XPA-1L and PA-1 was with unbalanced connections for ease of swapping, and very basic speaker wire.

When I swapped the XPA-1Ls instead of the XPA-100s, I had been listening to the 100s with the .7i speakers for more than 2 years. With the DC-1 in use, that connection became fully balanced.

Maybe these balanced connections could have made a difference?

Also, I’m rethinking constant A-B testing in favor of longer periods of usage to generate impressions. It’s easy to overthink what you are hearing I think, but how the sound makes you “feel” is perhaps more reliable.