Post by dgenske on Dec 11, 2009 1:18:28 GMT -5
I lurk these forums somewhat regularly and post sporadically, but I do find them valuable…just like I’ve found that Emotiva seems to generally offer excellent value. The UPA-2 is no exception—particularly at the current sale pricing. I have a few different audio systems and the current “test” application for the UPA-2 is my whole-house system. This system is a rather simple setup in a sense, but it’s what I consider effective and quite inexpensive by home-integration standards. It’s a centralized system driving 6 stereo zones with Russound in-wall volume controls for volume and impedance matching. This is really just a background music system since I typically like to have music on most of the time when home. I’ve used a few different sources, but recently it’s a netbook via an Airport Express and I use my iPhone as a remote control. It works quite well, but based on a couple different receivers that I’ve had driving this system, I’d say it’s pretty difficult to drive and I’ve had clipping issues in the past.
I just purchased the UPA-2 and replaced a 105 w/ch, mid-level Yamaha receiver in this system. Initially, I expected to need to use the Yamaha as a preamp (temporarily) to keep the volume under control, but the integrated level control in the UPA-2 works great in this application with the Airport Express driving the amp directly. I’ve only got it dialed back a little bit, but I guess I feel better not pushing the amp to its limits all the time. Even at relatively high volumes, I have not observed any clipping and the overall dynamics of this system are drastically improved over what I was using before. Again, this is not really a dedicated listening setup, so the finer nuances of the amp’s sound might be tough to discern—and I haven’t really tried to do so. While this system will play more loudly and clearly than it has with lesser amplification, it’s not going to be confused for a dance club any time soon. Most speakers in the system are reasonably efficient and volume is certainly adequate, but there isn’t an over-abundance of headroom where I can let the amp loaf at 40% of its capacity—at least with this setup. That said, it’s certainly amazing what $250 worth of good-quality amplification did for this system and meets every reasonable expectation for an amplifier at this price point. It’s also worth mentioning that I have this system installed in a closed cabinet and the UPA-2 runs very cool—even driving this kind of load.
In summary, the value of this amplifier is stunning. I’ve already got an XPA-2 and XPA-3 performing amplification duties in my home theater/media room, which are also very impressive. I recently picked up the ERC-1 as well for my main system and have logged a couple hours of critical listening on the headphone setup and I’m quite impressed with that product as well. Seriously, with the kind of value that I’ve found Emotiva to provide, I’m a believer without drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid.
I just purchased the UPA-2 and replaced a 105 w/ch, mid-level Yamaha receiver in this system. Initially, I expected to need to use the Yamaha as a preamp (temporarily) to keep the volume under control, but the integrated level control in the UPA-2 works great in this application with the Airport Express driving the amp directly. I’ve only got it dialed back a little bit, but I guess I feel better not pushing the amp to its limits all the time. Even at relatively high volumes, I have not observed any clipping and the overall dynamics of this system are drastically improved over what I was using before. Again, this is not really a dedicated listening setup, so the finer nuances of the amp’s sound might be tough to discern—and I haven’t really tried to do so. While this system will play more loudly and clearly than it has with lesser amplification, it’s not going to be confused for a dance club any time soon. Most speakers in the system are reasonably efficient and volume is certainly adequate, but there isn’t an over-abundance of headroom where I can let the amp loaf at 40% of its capacity—at least with this setup. That said, it’s certainly amazing what $250 worth of good-quality amplification did for this system and meets every reasonable expectation for an amplifier at this price point. It’s also worth mentioning that I have this system installed in a closed cabinet and the UPA-2 runs very cool—even driving this kind of load.
In summary, the value of this amplifier is stunning. I’ve already got an XPA-2 and XPA-3 performing amplification duties in my home theater/media room, which are also very impressive. I recently picked up the ERC-1 as well for my main system and have logged a couple hours of critical listening on the headphone setup and I’m quite impressed with that product as well. Seriously, with the kind of value that I’ve found Emotiva to provide, I’m a believer without drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid.
