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Post by briank on Mar 7, 2010 11:04:09 GMT -5
I'd pick the UPA-1's to drive the MMG or 12, when you get to 1.6 and larger, I would spend the extra money for the XPA-1's. What can I say, in the past year of comparing amps, I've become a big fan of monoblocks. I have UPA-1's now and I plan to buy some Maggies within the next 60-90 days, and will report on the combo when I can. Probably going to start with the MMG's and if I like'em, I may upgrade to the 12's or 1.7 although Selah Audio's "Verita" is calling my name as well. Decisions, decisions.
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Post by honk on Mar 7, 2010 13:40:07 GMT -5
We compared some XPAs these days (1,2,5), an I was sure that I can tell the difference immediately when the One is switched .... but it was far from it. I still prefer the big guns, but I have to concede, that the sound is this close, you cannot say which amp is running until it gets super extreme loud or if you can see it.
Sometimes I thought the 5 is the 1, in another round the 2 sounded this smooth and it was the best to my ears. I was astounded by the results!
I don't care much about sound colorations anymore, I love all my XPAs, and I'm happy that they are in the real world all on the same level. :-)
(And I like the cutie UPA-1, it is the green alternative if you want to stack monos. The UPA got only 30W idle consumption vs. 90 W XPA idle. Maybe this is importand if you go for 5 or 7 units.
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Post by strindl on Mar 7, 2010 14:27:56 GMT -5
I am interested in botth the X2 and the UPA1 I want the best musicality for 2 channel only to drive my Maggie MMG. I have a powered sub for bass so the amp that is the most musical and refined is what I would an opinion on. I own MMG's and 1.6's and have a pair of 1.7's on order. I'm a long time (32 year) magnepan owner and fan. I also own an XPA-2, XPA-5 and a pair of XPA-1's. I've not yet had the opportunity to hear the UPA-1's. Based on the specs of the UPA-1 and my first hand experience with XPA series amps, I'm certain the UPA-1 would sound very very nice on a pair of magnepans. I know the XPA-2 sounds very very nice driving magnepans because I've heard them together...on both the MMG's and the 1.6's. The bottom line is I don't think there's a wrong choice here...each would make the maggies sing. My personal preference when driving any inefficient speaker like a maggie is to go for as much power as I can, everything else being equal. That's why I have a pair of XPA-1's driving my very inefficient low resistance Thiel 3.6's. Dynamic peaks on music will demand far more power for brief periods, so it's not just a question of whether or not a pair of mmg's NEED 500 watts per channel. They don't. The question becomes will MMG's make use of the capabilities of a 500 watt per channel amp. They will.
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Post by soulrider4ever on Mar 7, 2010 14:38:41 GMT -5
Good review, and is pretty much what I expected to hear. I dont run a subwoofer, so the XPA-2 is a better choice for me. Sounds like they have a winner with the UPA-1, but me needs the bass!
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Post by ossif on Mar 7, 2010 15:26:01 GMT -5
I am interested in botth the X2 and the UPA1 I want the best musicality for 2 channel only to drive my Maggie MMG. I have a powered sub for bass so the amp that is the most musical and refined is what I would an opinion on. I do not own the maggies or an XPA-2 (so I cannot speak from first hand experience) but I asked this same question in another thread and the general consensus among Maggie owners was that the XPA-2 would be a better match due to the relatively low efficiency and high power handling capabilities of those speakers. Also, from all of the compare and contrast of these two amps, it seems to be that the differences in sound are subtle and unless you did a side by side A/B test you would not notice a gap in the sound QUALITY of these two amps. The XPA-2 would (probably) fare better in this match-up due to the extra power, headroom, dynamics, ect... Hope that helps. I do not know about the maggies but my speakers have an impedance min. of 2.7 Ohm in the lower end which is rather difficult for an amp to handle. Both the UPA-1 and XPA-2 do very fine with my speaker so both have more than enough power. Of course you need to do a side by side comparison to find out which one is the better and best but once you did, you will know that this is not only about power but about the overall advantage of a 100% monoral concept. And no matter what kind of speaker you have, this will remain so unless perhaps you try to fry your brain with music levels comparabel to an F-14 with full afterburner at start in 10 meter from you. I know a lot of people relate the bigger one with the better one but in this case, believe me or not, the smaller one is the more clever concept. If you pretend to be an audiophil, power is probably the last thing you might be looking into anyway. You loose nothing to try it out for youself, given you lucky guys in the US can profit from a nice return policy.
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Post by franki1 on Mar 7, 2010 16:55:57 GMT -5
I appreciate all the comments and I will order one or the other tomorrow. I agree the Maggie will use the power. I nptice on small scale recordings it doesn't give a hoot. My Outlaw puts out 190W into 4ohms and drives them well. On classical big scale recordings I need to turn up the volume to about 1PM to get full scale. On most jazz and other scales of music I can leave the volume at 9 o'clock and its plenty loud. Full scale orchestra music needs power so that why I will probably go with the X2> i l;listen at low levels but I do have a nice classical collection.
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Post by teedub21 on Mar 8, 2010 16:04:48 GMT -5
Magnepan speakers are a very benign 4 ohm load. Not terribly difficult to drive, just not efficient. They really open up with more power.
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Post by zarthaz on Mar 9, 2010 1:09:55 GMT -5
Guess I will find out soon enough what the Upa-1's sound like. Just ordered and paid for 3 of them, but they are going to Australia, so it will take a bit longer before i get them.
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Post by paintedklown on Mar 9, 2010 1:48:14 GMT -5
Guess I will find out soon enough what the Upa-1's sound like. Just ordered and paid for 3 of them, but they are going to Australia, so it will take a bit longer before i get them. Congratulations. You are going to love them.
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Post by soulrider4ever on Mar 9, 2010 7:17:01 GMT -5
Well I just ordered a pair of these, 2 - 10" drivers with a 600w recommended power. I might just have to get 6 XPA-1's to power these badboys ;D Triamp anyone? =
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Post by bestboy on Mar 9, 2010 13:29:51 GMT -5
If you post speakers, could you please post the names/brands as well? It's really lame to see nice speakers and not being able look them up. In this very thread I experienced this twice already - for Ossif's speakers and now soulrider4ever's speakers. So pleeeeeeeeease... BTW: As some mentioned the veneer of Ossif's speakers. I have reasons to believe that these speakers are not made of wood at all! From the picture Ossif posted I got the name "Expolinear" which is a small German manufacturer that is specialized in speakers made of marble and stone I didn't find the particular speaker model on their site, tho...
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oneliterpeter
Emo VIPs
The Older You Get... The Faster you Were
Posts: 1,004
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Post by oneliterpeter on Mar 9, 2010 13:56:17 GMT -5
If you post speakers, could you please post the names/brands as well? It's really lame to see nice speakers and not being able look them up. In this very thread I experienced this twice already - for Ossif's speakers and now soulrider4ever's speakers. So pleeeeeeeeease... BTW: As some mentioned the veneer of Ossif's speakers. I have reasons to believe that these speakers are not made of wood at all! From the picture Ossif posted I got the name "Expolinear" which is a small German manufacturer that is specialized in speakers made of marble and stone I didn't find the particular speaker model on their site, tho... Really... There's no reason to even look up those speakers. Just go with some Magnepans or Martin Logans.
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Post by SticknStones on Mar 9, 2010 14:03:21 GMT -5
If you post speakers, could you please post the names/brands as well? It's really lame to see nice speakers and not being able look them up. In this very thread I experienced this twice already - for Ossif's speakers and now soulrider4ever's speakers. So pleeeeeeeeease... BTW: As some mentioned the veneer of Ossif's speakers. I have reasons to believe that these speakers are not made of wood at all! From the picture Ossif posted I got the name "Expolinear" which is a small German manufacturer that is specialized in speakers made of marble and stone I didn't find the particular speaker model on their site, tho... Looks like the Wharfedale Opus 2-3 in natural cherry for soulrider. www.wharfedale.co.uk/Products/Product/tabid/78/PID/13/CID/72/language/en-GB/Default.aspx#detailHere is the data brochure on the series with specs. www.wharfedale.co.uk/Portals/0/PDF_Data/Brochure/Opus2_RANGE.pdf
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Post by soulrider4ever on Mar 9, 2010 14:21:45 GMT -5
If you post speakers, could you please post the names/brands as well? It's really lame to see nice speakers and not being able look them up. In this very thread I experienced this twice already - for Ossif's speakers and now soulrider4ever's speakers. So pleeeeeeeeease... BTW: As some mentioned the veneer of Ossif's speakers. I have reasons to believe that these speakers are not made of wood at all! From the picture Ossif posted I got the name "Expolinear" which is a small German manufacturer that is specialized in speakers made of marble and stone I didn't find the particular speaker model on their site, tho... Looks like the Wharfedale Opus 2-3 in natural cherry for soulrider. www.wharfedale.co.uk/Products/Product/tabid/78/PID/13/CID/72/language/en-GB/Default.aspx#detailHere is the data brochure on the series with specs. www.wharfedale.co.uk/Portals/0/PDF_Data/Brochure/Opus2_RANGE.pdfCorrect ;D
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Post by ossif on Mar 9, 2010 15:31:23 GMT -5
If you post speakers, could you please post the names/brands as well? It's really lame to see nice speakers and not being able look them up. In this very thread I experienced this twice already - for Ossif's speakers and now soulrider4ever's speakers. So pleeeeeeeeease... BTW: As some mentioned the veneer of Ossif's speakers. I have reasons to believe that these speakers are not made of wood at all! From the picture Ossif posted I got the name "Expolinear" which is a small German manufacturer that is specialized in speakers made of marble and stone I didn't find the particular speaker model on their site, tho... You are right and I apologize not to have lost a word about my speakers. The speakers are a modified version of the 1994 presented "Esprit" from a German Speaker builder’s magazine called "Klang &Ton". I built them in 2001. It is a two way speaker that represents the combination of magnetostat tweeter from Expolinear and a 6' mid/bass speaker from Audax with an aerogel conus material called "HDA" which basically is a fiber mixture with stunning material properties. The enclosure is a heavily reinforced development of my own encompassing a 15 liter closed sand volume in the bottom in which the crossover network is drown. The crossover is made of what was most expensive and good sounding, like silver oil caps and all coils are air coils baked together with epoxy to make sure there is no swinging of the coil. The internal cabling is Kimber 4 TC. The veneer is curled water birch. I believe you could call this is a high end speaker. I attached a photo of my surround speaker just to give you an idea what I did after my main speakers were finished. But I have to admit that I did not use any silver oil caps for my surround speakers…
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Post by ossif on Mar 9, 2010 15:41:43 GMT -5
Guess I will find out soon enough what the Upa-1's sound like. Just ordered and paid for 3 of them, but they are going to Australia, so it will take a bit longer before i get them. Good choice. Happy listening!
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Post by zarthaz on Mar 10, 2010 0:10:37 GMT -5
Guess I will find out soon enough what the Upa-1's sound like. Just ordered and paid for 3 of them, but they are going to Australia, so it will take a bit longer before i get them. Good choice. Happy listening! Thanks, gonna be a little longer than first expected, seems to be no stock till March 19. Just when you thought you were gonna have them soon, someone upset the applecart lol. Ah well
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Post by paintedklown on Mar 10, 2010 0:57:58 GMT -5
Well I just ordered a pair of these, 2 - 10" drivers with a 600w recommended power. I might just have to get 6 XPA-1's to power these badboys ;D Triamp anyone? = WOW!!! Those things look amazing!!! VERY nice speakers, I will assume they sound as good as they look. Congrats!
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Post by honk on Mar 10, 2010 6:43:13 GMT -5
The 75 mm textile dome is back? O. K.
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Post by soulrider4ever on Mar 10, 2010 12:18:18 GMT -5
The 75 mm textile dome is back? O. K. Yes, I got these for a great price at wildwestelectronics, they are 58% off for the entire opus-2 series in satin finish (with 5 year warranty). The line is being discontinued, probably for opusIII or something So as much as I'd like to give the UPA-1's a try, I just know they won't deliver enough power. Honestly, I dont think the XPA-2 will either. ;D Although 6 UPA-1's might just do the trick; I think for my birthday this year, I'm in for a pair of XPA-1's.
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