Post by chops on Oct 21, 2020 17:30:53 GMT -5
Hello all,
My name is Charles and I just purchased a used XPA-2 Gen 2 over the weekend, absolutely mint unit from the original owner, complete with original box, packaging, power cord and manual. The amp looks brand spankin' new all around.
I've been going through some amps lately to try and find one that plays nice with my also mint, 22 year old Martin Logan SL3's, also purchased from the original owner. This owner bought these speakers new in 1998, and over that time, only put about 5000 hours on them. I bought them from him about 4 years ago. Living in an apartment, I never could play them to sufficient levels, so never really had issues with the amps I was using. But because of the apartment, I never got these speakers positioned good enough to sound good, so stored them away and played around with a number of other, smaller speakers, less demanding on crappy rooms.
Fast forward to present, we now have a house and I decided to put these old SL3's back in circulation. Being able to play them at decent volume levels, I have been finding the short-comings of various amps. I had a pair of PS Audio Stellar M700 monoblocks that just didn't sound good at all with these SL3's. I ran them with these amps for roughly two days and quickly put the speakers away again it sounded so blah. Never took pics or posted anything about that combo anywhere until just now. Sold those M700 amps along with the matching PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC (which was also so-so sounding) and purchased a Schiit Freya+, Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC, and a pair of Aegir amps, run mono of course.
I ran this Schiit stack for almost a year with various speakers to great success up until a couple months ago when I decided to bring the Martin's back in again. The system sounded great, but the amps were easy to go into protection mode. I sold those Aegir amps, bought a few goodies for my car, and with the rest of the money, purchased a new Yamaha A-S501 integrated amp and a pair of AirMotiv Emotiva B1+ speakers to upgrade the bedroom system (replaced a Yamaha RX-V381 HT receiver and Elac Debut B6).
That was my first official Emotiva purchase, straight from Emotiva, naturally.
Anyway, long story short, one of my brothers has been a long time believer of Emotiva amps. His first purchase was a pair of XPA-2 Gen 2 amps, run mono to a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze BX5 towers. Those amps made it sound like he was using his subwoofers, but they were off. Those amps made those speakers sound huge! He now has a new XPA-DR2, which he uses with a variety of bookshelf speakers, Revel, Monitor Audio, JBL and a few others, along with a single PSB 10" sub.
Anyway, I am glad to announce that these XPA-2 Gen 2 makes these old Martin Logan SL3's sing. My brother has been trying to talk me into getting an Emotiva amp for years now, and I finally did. I have to say, it was a wise choice! Loads of dynamics, control, detail, airy and smooth, never bright or harsh, same tonality whether playing quietly or loud, and just a pure effortless sound.
And I chose the Gen 2 because from all of the reviews I have read, it's about one of the best, if not the best sounding from the entire lineup. I have to agree.
My name is Charles and I just purchased a used XPA-2 Gen 2 over the weekend, absolutely mint unit from the original owner, complete with original box, packaging, power cord and manual. The amp looks brand spankin' new all around.
I've been going through some amps lately to try and find one that plays nice with my also mint, 22 year old Martin Logan SL3's, also purchased from the original owner. This owner bought these speakers new in 1998, and over that time, only put about 5000 hours on them. I bought them from him about 4 years ago. Living in an apartment, I never could play them to sufficient levels, so never really had issues with the amps I was using. But because of the apartment, I never got these speakers positioned good enough to sound good, so stored them away and played around with a number of other, smaller speakers, less demanding on crappy rooms.
Fast forward to present, we now have a house and I decided to put these old SL3's back in circulation. Being able to play them at decent volume levels, I have been finding the short-comings of various amps. I had a pair of PS Audio Stellar M700 monoblocks that just didn't sound good at all with these SL3's. I ran them with these amps for roughly two days and quickly put the speakers away again it sounded so blah. Never took pics or posted anything about that combo anywhere until just now. Sold those M700 amps along with the matching PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC (which was also so-so sounding) and purchased a Schiit Freya+, Bifrost 2 Multibit DAC, and a pair of Aegir amps, run mono of course.
I ran this Schiit stack for almost a year with various speakers to great success up until a couple months ago when I decided to bring the Martin's back in again. The system sounded great, but the amps were easy to go into protection mode. I sold those Aegir amps, bought a few goodies for my car, and with the rest of the money, purchased a new Yamaha A-S501 integrated amp and a pair of AirMotiv Emotiva B1+ speakers to upgrade the bedroom system (replaced a Yamaha RX-V381 HT receiver and Elac Debut B6).
That was my first official Emotiva purchase, straight from Emotiva, naturally.
Anyway, long story short, one of my brothers has been a long time believer of Emotiva amps. His first purchase was a pair of XPA-2 Gen 2 amps, run mono to a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze BX5 towers. Those amps made it sound like he was using his subwoofers, but they were off. Those amps made those speakers sound huge! He now has a new XPA-DR2, which he uses with a variety of bookshelf speakers, Revel, Monitor Audio, JBL and a few others, along with a single PSB 10" sub.
Anyway, I am glad to announce that these XPA-2 Gen 2 makes these old Martin Logan SL3's sing. My brother has been trying to talk me into getting an Emotiva amp for years now, and I finally did. I have to say, it was a wise choice! Loads of dynamics, control, detail, airy and smooth, never bright or harsh, same tonality whether playing quietly or loud, and just a pure effortless sound.
And I chose the Gen 2 because from all of the reviews I have read, it's about one of the best, if not the best sounding from the entire lineup. I have to agree.
