Well I finally joined the XPA amp club...
Jan 30, 2022 9:26:17 GMT -5
creimes and tropicallutefisk like this
Post by sevenfeet on Jan 30, 2022 9:26:17 GMT -5
After many years of watching the XPA amps from the sidelines including attending a couple of EmoFests in the past and buying some minor gear on occasion, I've finally jumped into the fray by getting an XPA-5 Gen 3. Since I live in Nashville, I was able to pick it up from the Emo HQ in Franklin and even spoke to Dan for half an hour after I wandered into the main building looking for the warehouse. I purchased right before the end of the year so I still have some Emobucks to redeem.
I'm only posting now since I haven't had a lot of time with the XPA-5 since my wife and I are doing home renovations and I needed to disassemble by entire rack the day I got the amp to allow our contractor access space to fix some drywall before we repaint the room. So it was nearly two weeks before I actually hooked it up to anything (at first my front towers) with all of my gear splayed out on the floor. I took the opportunity of doing a rewiring project to finally permanently mount my SVS Prime Elevations (which literally had exposed wire running down the walls well as rewire the rear speakers with better quality cable and mono price banana plugs everywhere. I've since rebuilt the rack but I've have to tear it down again once the windows are replaced, room repainted and carpet replaced. In other words, the month of March will be busy.
My main pre-amp in my den/home theater has been a Marantz 7703 which I got years ago and used a couple of older receivers in the house for power thinking this would be a short term solutions. And then years past and I never bit the bullet. The XPA-5 will only retire one of the old receivers since I have a 7.1.4 system to drive but the difference in the main 5 is obvious and remarkable. And I haven't finished balancing the room yet due to construction chaos and family coming in and out making noise....maybe Monday I'll get to complete it when the kids are at school.
I did rediscover the old Marantz + Emo amp issue when dealing with balanced wiring and had to reverse polarity on all the mains. This isn't unlike the Audible Illusions Modulus-3 tube pre-amp that was in my two channel listening room for years (now out for repair, may never be fixed due to unavailable parts). It demanded the user to switch the polarity at the amp too.
My room is clearly "off" now concerning the Audyssey process but that's to be expected since much is different. The difference in gain alone between the XPA driven speakers and the ones driven by an older (but very capable) Yamaha receiver is pretty obvious. But I'll get it right in the end.
More to come as I break this in.
I'm only posting now since I haven't had a lot of time with the XPA-5 since my wife and I are doing home renovations and I needed to disassemble by entire rack the day I got the amp to allow our contractor access space to fix some drywall before we repaint the room. So it was nearly two weeks before I actually hooked it up to anything (at first my front towers) with all of my gear splayed out on the floor. I took the opportunity of doing a rewiring project to finally permanently mount my SVS Prime Elevations (which literally had exposed wire running down the walls well as rewire the rear speakers with better quality cable and mono price banana plugs everywhere. I've since rebuilt the rack but I've have to tear it down again once the windows are replaced, room repainted and carpet replaced. In other words, the month of March will be busy.
My main pre-amp in my den/home theater has been a Marantz 7703 which I got years ago and used a couple of older receivers in the house for power thinking this would be a short term solutions. And then years past and I never bit the bullet. The XPA-5 will only retire one of the old receivers since I have a 7.1.4 system to drive but the difference in the main 5 is obvious and remarkable. And I haven't finished balancing the room yet due to construction chaos and family coming in and out making noise....maybe Monday I'll get to complete it when the kids are at school.
I did rediscover the old Marantz + Emo amp issue when dealing with balanced wiring and had to reverse polarity on all the mains. This isn't unlike the Audible Illusions Modulus-3 tube pre-amp that was in my two channel listening room for years (now out for repair, may never be fixed due to unavailable parts). It demanded the user to switch the polarity at the amp too.
My room is clearly "off" now concerning the Audyssey process but that's to be expected since much is different. The difference in gain alone between the XPA driven speakers and the ones driven by an older (but very capable) Yamaha receiver is pretty obvious. But I'll get it right in the end.
More to come as I break this in.
