Post by dazedandconfused on Jul 15, 2009 8:51:57 GMT -5
After spending a ton of time on these forums and looking up god knows how many reviews of a wide range of speakers, I finally pulled the trigger on the XPA-5 and the Emotiva 8.3, 6.3 center and ERD surrounds.
I plan to write an evolving story of my experience and impressions of the speakers, so it will be in fits and bursts as I listen to them more and more. It will also include my impressions of the XPA-5 since the two are connected. Hopefully, this will help others researching Emotiva products as well as allow me to obtain inputs on how to improve/tweak performance.
July 14, 2009:
Shipping was very quick, much much quicker than I anticipated and I was able to take delivery of the equipment/speakers yesterday. Note to buyers, if you can or need to, you should try and get delivery signature waived. The default is signature in person - that means you cannot even sign the door tag on the first delivery attempt and have them leave the packages on your doorstep on their second attempt. For me, it meant making arrangements to work from home yesterday to take delivery.
It is every bit as heavy as the specifications. My excitement and eagerness, not my muscle, allowed me to unpack and set up the speakers and the XPA by myself. Not easy but it does require effort - a lot of it. Double boxed, the outer box had some wear and tear but the internal box was fine, then there is additional packaging and braces to hold the speakers. Excellent packaging.
I laid the first speaker flat, opened up the long sides and then lifted it out. I got smarter with the second speaker, kept it standing, opened up the long side and then slid it out standing - much easier that way than trying to lift it out. Recommended if you are doing it alone especially.
At the moment, I have the Onkyo SC-886 pre/pro, an Oppo 981HD, the XPA-5 and ONLY the front speakers set up. I have yet to get a TV, waiting for the Panny TC-P65V10 to be released so I will set up the center and surrounds later and update this post then.
I hooked up my Oppo using the HDMI cable to the pre/pro, then XLR cables from the front speaker outputs to the XPA XLR inputs, 14 gauge wire to the speakers using banana plugs, went through the assignment of inputs etc. on the pre/pro.
I then put in a DVD with a ton of mp3 songs, all 256-320 kbps and hit the play button. Nothing. Everything was switched on. Turned up the volume, checked the connections again. Nothing.
After about 20 mins of checking connections, input/output assignments and some swearing, I realized that I needed to switch the input selector at the back of XPS from unbalanced to balanced and music poured out of the speakers. So RTFM but knowing myself, I will continue to go to it as a last resort.
I am more of a 70s and 80s rock person, listen to stuff like CCR, America, Crosby, Clapton, some select songs from Led Zep/GunsnRoses/Deep Purple, etc. and also some bit of jazz, smooth and vocal.
I was close to buying the Paradigm Studio 100 series which I have auditioned several times, the other speaker I seriously considered were the B&W 703s so my comparisons will be against those.
Honestly, my first impression when the music first started - "The Paradigms sounded much better than these". I am not knocking these speakers, but I want to provide my honest impressions, so please continue reading.
I then switched to a Nickelback CD that I received recently for my birthday and I was immediately struck at the vast improvement in SQ. The equipment and the speakers really bring out the quality loss in compressed music. Lesson 1 - if you want quality music on this kind of equipment, your mp3s aren't gonna cut it. It will play well and clean but will be kinda lifeless. Implication for me - I had to go dig out all those CDs that I had put away several years ago in some box in a corner when I converted them to mp3s.
Even with the CD, I still felt that the Paradigms sounded better. Airier, crisper, more depth and feeling. But there were a couple of huge variables in here - I listened to the Paradigms in the dealers audition room, which was obviously prepped for music/HT, whereas my environment is a normal home environment - the family room is open to the kitchen, the system is not perfectly in the center of the room. The other variable was the dealer was using Krell CD players, pre/pros and Anthem amplifiers which may have a huge impact as well. The dealer was very reluctant to let me audition the Studio 100s in my home.
But the 8.3's are very very good. Clean. One thing that did strike me is even when I pushed the volume up, to the 0 db level, which was very very loud, the music stayed completely clean with no hint of any distortion. It was very loud but I did not feel it was jarring on my nerves like my earlier system would at that kind of volume. Just the ability to go so loud without feeling that sickening feeling you get when it gets too loud was fantastic. I think this was a combination of the XPA's clean power and the speakers ability to handle those kinds of volumes.
Yes, this combo does bring out the finer details in the music. I am going to continue to tweak the setups, switching the speakers so the tweeters are on the inside, toggling the switches on the back, etc. to see what results. Perhaps the speakers need to break in somemore. And I will continue posting.
I also have the opportunity to try bi-amping the speakers since I am using only 2 channels on the XPA and the Onkyo allows me to use its 6th and 7th pre-outs as a bi-amp option.
More later.
July 15, 2009 around 11.12 PM ET:
Had a chance to play around some more. Got home early. Extended out the outrigger feet. Then discovered that the spikes or feet or whatever you call it are still inside the box, hidden in the bottom under the end cap packaging.
Went out to the garage, got them and then installed them. One of the outrigger feet or whatchamacallit - the screws seemed to stick like it was not put in proper but others went well.
Then ran the Audyssey EQ on the Onkyo. This thing is a thing of beauty. I do not claim to be an audiophile who can say things like - it was little richer in the midrange, one could clearly discern the cymbals hanging in the air, it was more forward or backward or sidewards.... but once I ran the Audyssey setup, I immediately noticed that listening in any area that I used for the setup, the sound was excellent. Prior to the setup, the moment I moved from the prime listening position, you know straight ahead center, something was missing from the music - it sounded off, either harsh or lifeless. But now, every position in the listening area was good, nothing that felt wrong.
Then I bi-amped!! Until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea that a term 'bi-amp' even existed. If someone had asked me what that meant 3 weeks ago, I would have guessed something along the lines of a gender change or a new position! But since I had the ability to do so, I did it - the bi-amping, not the gender change. 'Told' the Onkyo that I was bi-amping, connected the 6/7th pre-out to the XPA and hooked up the 8.3s with another pair of wires.
Yes, bi-amping does improve the SQ - big time I think. There is much better definition of every instrument, the bass seems to be more 'in' with the rest of the music, the highs are clear as a bell .... one of the things I noticed that even when I went upstairs is that I could discern every cymbal, every bass pick. I had put on "Shes like the wind" - Patrick Swazye in Dirty Dancing at a low volume while I went upstairs to attend to something. Even at that low volume, upstairs I could hear (a) the delicate cymbal tssshhh, (b) the clacks of the drumsticks hitting the edge of the drums (you know where they are knocking against the metal side, not the top, and (c) every bass note when the bass guitar kicks in. Nice.
Then it all went kinda downhill. I was skimming the ERT manual and read the part where they recommend placing the speakers at least 2 feet from the wall. Well, I had mine about 8 inches. So I pulled it out and rearranged it. Immediately, I could tell that the vocals, the mid-range sounded way too loud, seemed to overpower everything else. I am guessing I have to run the Audyssey EQ calibration again to reset the speakers. Much as I could appreciate Fogerty's gritty voice in CCR, without the music it is just a gritty voice (but clear in all its grittiness).
More tomorrow.
I plan to write an evolving story of my experience and impressions of the speakers, so it will be in fits and bursts as I listen to them more and more. It will also include my impressions of the XPA-5 since the two are connected. Hopefully, this will help others researching Emotiva products as well as allow me to obtain inputs on how to improve/tweak performance.
July 14, 2009:
Shipping was very quick, much much quicker than I anticipated and I was able to take delivery of the equipment/speakers yesterday. Note to buyers, if you can or need to, you should try and get delivery signature waived. The default is signature in person - that means you cannot even sign the door tag on the first delivery attempt and have them leave the packages on your doorstep on their second attempt. For me, it meant making arrangements to work from home yesterday to take delivery.
It is every bit as heavy as the specifications. My excitement and eagerness, not my muscle, allowed me to unpack and set up the speakers and the XPA by myself. Not easy but it does require effort - a lot of it. Double boxed, the outer box had some wear and tear but the internal box was fine, then there is additional packaging and braces to hold the speakers. Excellent packaging.
I laid the first speaker flat, opened up the long sides and then lifted it out. I got smarter with the second speaker, kept it standing, opened up the long side and then slid it out standing - much easier that way than trying to lift it out. Recommended if you are doing it alone especially.
At the moment, I have the Onkyo SC-886 pre/pro, an Oppo 981HD, the XPA-5 and ONLY the front speakers set up. I have yet to get a TV, waiting for the Panny TC-P65V10 to be released so I will set up the center and surrounds later and update this post then.
I hooked up my Oppo using the HDMI cable to the pre/pro, then XLR cables from the front speaker outputs to the XPA XLR inputs, 14 gauge wire to the speakers using banana plugs, went through the assignment of inputs etc. on the pre/pro.
I then put in a DVD with a ton of mp3 songs, all 256-320 kbps and hit the play button. Nothing. Everything was switched on. Turned up the volume, checked the connections again. Nothing.
After about 20 mins of checking connections, input/output assignments and some swearing, I realized that I needed to switch the input selector at the back of XPS from unbalanced to balanced and music poured out of the speakers. So RTFM but knowing myself, I will continue to go to it as a last resort.
I am more of a 70s and 80s rock person, listen to stuff like CCR, America, Crosby, Clapton, some select songs from Led Zep/GunsnRoses/Deep Purple, etc. and also some bit of jazz, smooth and vocal.
I was close to buying the Paradigm Studio 100 series which I have auditioned several times, the other speaker I seriously considered were the B&W 703s so my comparisons will be against those.
Honestly, my first impression when the music first started - "The Paradigms sounded much better than these". I am not knocking these speakers, but I want to provide my honest impressions, so please continue reading.
I then switched to a Nickelback CD that I received recently for my birthday and I was immediately struck at the vast improvement in SQ. The equipment and the speakers really bring out the quality loss in compressed music. Lesson 1 - if you want quality music on this kind of equipment, your mp3s aren't gonna cut it. It will play well and clean but will be kinda lifeless. Implication for me - I had to go dig out all those CDs that I had put away several years ago in some box in a corner when I converted them to mp3s.
Even with the CD, I still felt that the Paradigms sounded better. Airier, crisper, more depth and feeling. But there were a couple of huge variables in here - I listened to the Paradigms in the dealers audition room, which was obviously prepped for music/HT, whereas my environment is a normal home environment - the family room is open to the kitchen, the system is not perfectly in the center of the room. The other variable was the dealer was using Krell CD players, pre/pros and Anthem amplifiers which may have a huge impact as well. The dealer was very reluctant to let me audition the Studio 100s in my home.
But the 8.3's are very very good. Clean. One thing that did strike me is even when I pushed the volume up, to the 0 db level, which was very very loud, the music stayed completely clean with no hint of any distortion. It was very loud but I did not feel it was jarring on my nerves like my earlier system would at that kind of volume. Just the ability to go so loud without feeling that sickening feeling you get when it gets too loud was fantastic. I think this was a combination of the XPA's clean power and the speakers ability to handle those kinds of volumes.
Yes, this combo does bring out the finer details in the music. I am going to continue to tweak the setups, switching the speakers so the tweeters are on the inside, toggling the switches on the back, etc. to see what results. Perhaps the speakers need to break in somemore. And I will continue posting.
I also have the opportunity to try bi-amping the speakers since I am using only 2 channels on the XPA and the Onkyo allows me to use its 6th and 7th pre-outs as a bi-amp option.
More later.
July 15, 2009 around 11.12 PM ET:
Had a chance to play around some more. Got home early. Extended out the outrigger feet. Then discovered that the spikes or feet or whatever you call it are still inside the box, hidden in the bottom under the end cap packaging.
Went out to the garage, got them and then installed them. One of the outrigger feet or whatchamacallit - the screws seemed to stick like it was not put in proper but others went well.Then ran the Audyssey EQ on the Onkyo. This thing is a thing of beauty. I do not claim to be an audiophile who can say things like - it was little richer in the midrange, one could clearly discern the cymbals hanging in the air, it was more forward or backward or sidewards.... but once I ran the Audyssey setup, I immediately noticed that listening in any area that I used for the setup, the sound was excellent. Prior to the setup, the moment I moved from the prime listening position, you know straight ahead center, something was missing from the music - it sounded off, either harsh or lifeless. But now, every position in the listening area was good, nothing that felt wrong.
Then I bi-amped!! Until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea that a term 'bi-amp' even existed. If someone had asked me what that meant 3 weeks ago, I would have guessed something along the lines of a gender change or a new position! But since I had the ability to do so, I did it - the bi-amping, not the gender change
. 'Told' the Onkyo that I was bi-amping, connected the 6/7th pre-out to the XPA and hooked up the 8.3s with another pair of wires. Yes, bi-amping does improve the SQ - big time I think. There is much better definition of every instrument, the bass seems to be more 'in' with the rest of the music, the highs are clear as a bell .... one of the things I noticed that even when I went upstairs is that I could discern every cymbal, every bass pick. I had put on "Shes like the wind" - Patrick Swazye in Dirty Dancing at a low volume while I went upstairs to attend to something. Even at that low volume, upstairs I could hear (a) the delicate cymbal tssshhh, (b) the clacks of the drumsticks hitting the edge of the drums (you know where they are knocking against the metal side, not the top, and (c) every bass note when the bass guitar kicks in. Nice.
Then it all went kinda downhill. I was skimming the ERT manual and read the part where they recommend placing the speakers at least 2 feet from the wall. Well, I had mine about 8 inches. So I pulled it out and rearranged it. Immediately, I could tell that the vocals, the mid-range sounded way too loud, seemed to overpower everything else. I am guessing I have to run the Audyssey EQ calibration again to reset the speakers. Much as I could appreciate Fogerty's gritty voice in CCR, without the music it is just a gritty voice (but clear in all its grittiness).
More tomorrow.
)
