Power Meters on Gen4 Amplifiers - Please

[markscho]

Hi All

It would be great to get power meters on the XPA DR1 Gen4 when they come.  Analog or digital.  Even an option to custom order amps with Power Meters would be good with the same power meters that came on the XPA1 Gen2 to save cost & complexity of manufacturing  for Emotiva. I run a pair of XPA2 Gen2s Vertical Bi-Amped and have held out for new amps with power meters.  I would gladly pay up for some meters 


Thanks and Thoughts 

[JKCashin]

YES!!!!

[novisnick]

At what cost are meters worth to you?  🤔

[markc]

I'd prefer optional rather than default, otherwise my hifi will start to look like a teenagers gaming PC rig with displays or LED's all over the place, unless I do the only other thing possible and turn everything off.

I'm curious how helpful they are, unless the amps go back to Class A / A+B switchable like on the XPA2 Gen2, so that you can see how close to the 60W you drive your system. Even then, it is probably a "set and forget" setting you use once to find out if you might ever benefit from or need that facility.

Otherwise, the Emotiva amps, even the standard single channel module amplifiers are so highly rated (275 W) that a meter is not particularly relevant as no-one will ever clip the 650W of the Differential Referenced amps!
Whether you are driving it at 40W or 80W at reference listening volumes still leaves far too much headroom to ever be worried about it.

Assuming your amplifiers are kept front of room, between your speakers, you would be deaf before you even got close enough to be able to read that you are using more than 1/3 of the power.

[pedrocols]

Just get a McIntosh amp or Audio Research.

[rbk123]

Definitely optional; don't want them.

[markscho]

Been pondering  a pair of the McIntosh 1.25's or a pair of Michi M8s but have an affection for Emotiva and thus the ask.   The cutout is there in the front plate of the Emo's so you could just have the ability to be disable like before and keep the same current look with no meters. 

Would pay $400 per amp for power meters using the old XPA1 Gen 2 meters as figured it would be a high cost without a large production in parts and labor or maybe that is cheap and it would cost more - just reference using the older meters as the cutout is in the faceplate already and they used to sourced these meters so perhaps using the same parts would make it feasible for Emotiva. 

[tropicallutefisk]

I love the McIntosh meters and think they really add to the appeal. The AR meters on the other hand I find rather MEH and possibly even detract from the appearance. Personally, I would not pay extra to have meters. To each their own of course and there is nothing wrong with wanting them.

[amped]

Jun 12, 2020 9:00:43 GMT -5 markscho said:

Been pondering  a pair of the McIntosh 1.25's or a pair of Michi M8s but have an affection for Emotiva and thus the ask.   The cutout is there in the front plate of the Emo's so you could just have the ability to be disable like before and keep the same current look with no meters. 

Would pay $400 per amp for power meters using the old XPA1 Gen 2 meters as figured it would be a high cost without a large production in parts and labor or maybe that is cheap and it would cost more - just reference using the older meters as the cutout is in the faceplate already and they used to sourced these meters so perhaps using the same parts would make it feasible for Emotiva. 

"Been pondering a pair of the McIntosh 1.25's or a pair of Michi M8s but have an affection for Emotiva and thus the ask."

Wow that is quite rarified air you are comparing the Emo amp with....

So it's the "meters" that may sway you're decision and not the $20,000 difference? 

[garbulky]

The problem is that these amps are upgradable to additional channels. So how does one adjust to that?

[novisnick]

Jun 12, 2020 10:39:55 GMT -5 garbulky said:

The problem is that these amps are upgradable to additional channels. So how does one adjust to that?

Good question, almost. Meters  would be of the realm of Monoblocks and Stereo amps. All others would have to be without unless you want to get into more serious money. 🤔

[ttocs]

For around $40 you can build a couple. www.giangrandi.ch/electronics/vu-meter/vu-meter.shtml I've been wanting to build some for quite a while, and plan to do so. I think they're fun, and only slightly informative in the beginning.

Actually, I'd love to find an app that could be displayed on my 85" tv! Kind of like one of those old Light Organs from the '70s. Hey, if I could fill my screen with a McIntosh Meter using an app on the tv itself, I'd pay a few bucks for that! It would have to use the microphone and be sound-based, but that would be fun.

In the short term I've been thinking about just using my old Harman Kardon cassette recorder which has LED VU displays. It's just sitting in the basement doing nothing.

[rbk123]

Jun 12, 2020 9:50:59 GMT -5 amped said:

So it's the "meters" that may sway you're decision and not the $20,000 difference? 

Or not the sonic performance between them, or.....

[audiobill]

Now here are some meters!!

Attachments:

[leonski]

A terrible waste of circuitry. And for all they are supposed to do? They don't with any degree of accuracy, except perhaps into a resistor.

The Meter which CAN be of some value? Pass uses a BIAS meter which during normal play does NOT move. When you get to the point where the

meter begins to deflect? You are driving the amp out of class 'A' as the bias to output ratio drops.....

That's a meter I could live with.

[audiobill]

Oh, where's your sense of fun??

[leonski]

I think the OP says it all. Biamp with XPA-2s.....And I'll bet 20 Pesos he is doing so at speaker level without a Line Level crossover....which would gain as much as 3db additional power thru bandwidth limiting the amps.

Since I find it nearly inconceiveable for a speaker to need THAT much power and I'll also bet the whole things plugged into a single 15 amp circuit? What's the point?

Yeah, I guess I left my sense of fun out in the car.

[gsand]

Nothing wrong with meter's. 

[rbk123]

Au contraire. leonski listed several things wrong with meters.

[audiobill]

Absolutely!!