Emotiva XPA-5 review
I have had some time now to spend with my XPA-5 and explore it’s merits vs. the B&K Sonata Video 5 it replaced, as well as an average AVR receiver.
But first, a word on the theory of the audio chain. Unless you’re a musician who has the ability to record, we all find ourselves coming in at the middle of the chain - the material has been recorded, edited, mixed, engineered & marketed in convenient disc form. The equipment we choose to buy is then responsible for reproducing the sounds/music in our homes, while (ideally) being faithful to the sounds/music on the disc.
Typically the end of the chain involves: 1. A disc player (turntable, CD player, DVD/BD player - with or without D/A converter) 2. A pre-amp which may convert digital to analog, as well as process surround sound formats, add tone & volume control 3. An amplifier or 4. A receiver which combines 2 & 3. 5. Cable to go from the pre-amp to the amplifier & from the amp to the speakers, and finally 6. The speakers.
As we all know, “a chain is only as good as its weakest link”. Since we have no control over what happens to the sound being put on the disc, we are left with the end of the chain. The most common item people consider is speaker cable. Small gage wire isn’t very conducive to transmitting the signal to the speaker in the best manner. Like most “upgrades”, there are practical concerns, and ridiculous ones. There are some merits to specialty speaker cables, but only to a point. Investing a reasonable amount of money will add sonic benefits, but only if the rest of the links in the chain are up to snuff. A mediocre receiver & speaker will not be made to sound great with expensive speaker cable. As such, introducing such a change may not have a noticeable impact, but may have a subtle one. As each link is “upgraded”, each will add another subtle change, which when added together can make an appreciable difference, even to the casual listener. This is why I have the equipment, or “links” that I do. No one is going to make a night-and-day difference in what I hear, but accumulative effect is they come together to make a very good sounding system.
Some members here have realized the benefits of simply adding an outboard amplifier to an existing system. The Emotiva line of amplifiers offers the HT and music enthusiast the opportunity to reap the benefits of such an upgrade without being priced out of reach. This also allows the end user to only upgrade the pre/pro as newer technology becomes available while keeping the amplifier. I have chosen to go the route of separates for the added, albeit subtle difference in sound quality.
Wit the B&K amp, I was getting very good sound. I would categorize the sound as “warm”. Many people ask what makes one amplifier “warmer” than another. As near as I can tell, it means a somewhat recessed treble response. More to some peoples liking than others, it usually is a characteristic favored for music reproduction than movies. Music sounded very good, but movies seemed to be lacking a bit of impact.
I should mention that the system is in the upper floor of a split level house. The right speaker has the normal room boundaries, but the left has no wall near it. As a result, some of the bass energy from the speakers & subwoofer is lost. I knew adding power to the output of the amplifier would help, so I did a lot of research, considered used vs. new and found a good offer on a slightly used Emotiva XPA-5. My other consideration was a Sunfire Cinema Grand, but the Emotiva had some great reviews and was about $250 cheaper, both amps being on the used market.
In terms of tonality, the Emotiva was not as warm as the B&K, which I take as it being more neutral. The soundstage was very much the same - wide, deep & tall. Where the Emotiva had a clear edge was in focus. I use two KEF IQ7 speakers as my front end, in a “phantom center” configuration, where the center image is blended equally into the two front mains. I prefer this arrangement as the focus stays on screen, and pans are more cohesive. Switching from a conventional “tweeter on top” two way speaker to the KEF coincidental configuration helped to broaden the “sweet spot” but the addition of the Emotiva amplifier helped to solidify the image even more. We have a wide couch at the opposite end of the room, and the sweet spot is now the whole width of the sofa. Another way to look at it is this - by upgrading the amplifier, I have negated the need to buy a matching center channel speaker at a cost of $500, which when deducted from the price of the amp makes it a phenomenal value.
The next area the Emotiva helped in is the bass. Watching scenes from Transformers, Iron Man & The Dark Night (all on BD) brought about a whole new level of percussion & concussion that were missing before, particularly in the areas of gun shots & explosions. Since the level of my subwoofers were matched to that of the main speakers, I knew I was hearing the woofers on the IQ7’s really kicking. However, I never got the sense that the bass was being overdone, it was just more present than before, which is how it is encoded onto the disc.
Another advantage was in the level of detail. Subtleties in the wavering of voices which were not readily apparent before were present. Again, the amp wasn’t artificially adding something that wasn’t in the mix, but rather revealing what had been there all along. Very satisfying indeed.
As for music, aside from the slightly (and I do mean slightly) brighter presentation, all the other sonic benefits that added to movie listening are present in musical reproduction. Tighter focus, detail, bass response, neutral tonality…while I find I prefer a slightly warm presentation to my music, as this system is used for both music & movies, the trade off is so slight that I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.
As for most any of us, I know there is better equipment out there, but unfortunately in order for us to enjoy any of it would mean having to pay enormously inflated prices associated with these “premiere” brands, which means helping to perpetuate the misnomer that you have to spend mega $ to own a certain label. There are many quality products all throughout the chain that can be had for a reasonable amount of your hard earned cash from companies that know you want a quality system, but that you also live in the real world, with real income & expenses. Emotiva is one such company and very worthy of consideration from anyone looking for a real world upgrade to their system. I whole heartily recommend this amplifier to anyone looking to reap the benefits from a quality external amplifier.
Associated equipment:
Panasonic BD55 Blu-ray player (using internal decoder & D/A converter for music & movies)
Rotel RSP-1066 pre-pro
KEF IQ7 front main & IQ8DS surround speakers
Audioquest interconnect & speaker cables
Parts Express speaker cable
Klipsch KSW12 subwoofer
Belkin power conditioner (amplifier plugged into separate wall outlet)
