Emotiva opinions?

[HiFiThor]

I have been visiting a local audio shop where they have once a week a listening session after the shop closes for the day. Someone is picked from the week before to bring in an album. You never know what will be the selection until that night. This is played on the most expensive equipment in the shop. Their mantra is "affordable HiFi". Not sure about the speakers used, I think they were 12K a pair but the electronics is Emotiva.

Seems to work pretty good and looks like a good value for the money, $1100 for the monoblock amps. A look inside tells me that the build quality is good too.

What do you think, a good buy? I haven't seen too much either way on Emotiva equipment.

 

[freQ(*)Oddio]

The Emotiva phono stage gets good reviews, The new amps i think are a class H lighter weight design, compared to their earlier class D amps. I have seen the Emotiva name listed in many AK signatures, and pics, so they probably make some nice components.

 

[JoeESP9]

There are quite a few Emotiva owners here. For the most part they seem satisfied. I know I'm quite satisfied with the UMC-200 and XDA-2 I have. However, I don't have any of their power amplifiers.

 

[trinhsman]

O own several pieces. Bang for the buck, amazing stuff. However, as I went up the upgrade path their stuff was not quite where I was headed. See my signature, I still have Emo gear in my basement system, and it is very nice. If I suddenly had to be really careful about budgets, Emo would be my choice......PERIOD!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Emotiva is just fine and a hella bargain. Great customer service and support as well. I have an XDA-1 DAC and an XPS 5 Gen 2 amp I use for HT. Neither is going anywhere. The amp compares very favorably to a Yamaha M2, and that says a lot.

 

[HiFiThor]

The Emotiva phono stage gets good reviews, The new amps i think are a class H lighter weight design, compared to their earlier class D amps. I have seen the Emotiva name listed in many AK signatures, and pics, so they probably make some nice components.

Class H? Is this basically using a switching type power supply much like in a computer? I am curious how such a supply can provide the current needed to produce the watts. It just seems that for that kind of performance it would be very stressful and the PPS would not last too long.

 

[HiFiThor]

There are quite a few Emotiva owners here. For the most part they seem satisfied. I know I'm quite satisfied with the UMC-200 and XDA-2 I have. However, I don't have any of their power amplifiers.

I see in your tag you own Maggies. How satisfied are you with them? I have had a set of MG-IIs since I bought them new in 1978. In '92 I had them rebuilt and they are still working great. I am thinking about getting some 3.7s new and would be paired with these Emotiva mono-block amp

 

[orsen]

i have the pt-100 and upa 200
i am quite happy with both, the only downside is i am used to using a power bar to turn everything on\off
i cant do this with the emotiva dac, cause that causes windows to longer see the dac and i have to set it up again.
leaving the pre in stand by does prevent this... so no more power bar

 

[Hyfi]

Just curious what else was in"the shop" if Emotiva was the "most expensive equipment"

 

[91r100gs]

Bought a XSP-1 preamp right before the holiday. The "Short Path fully analog Direct Mode" is why I purchased this, along with a full function remote. After 6 months of use there have been no surprises and the SQ is beyond what I expected. After 100 hours of use it really started to sing. Looked long and hard before buying this and could find nothing even close in features, functions, and as it turns out SQ. If you notice I have not mentioned price. After living with this for a while I would even pay the new higher price. I purchased mine direct from Emotiva during the pre Black Friday sale.

 

[freQ(*)Oddio]

Class H? Is this basically using a switching type power supply much like in a computer? I am curious how such a supply can provide the current needed to produce the watts. It just seems that for that kind of performance it would be very stressful and the PPS would not last too long.

XPA-1 were class A/B , GEN3 are class H and many pro audio power amps use class H now without issue, I have been using QSC h class amps for years that supply several thousand watts for hours into a 4 ohm load in 90 deg heat without a hitch, and they are retired doing hifi duty now. so the Emotiva h class line im sure is a great design.

 

[CohibaJoe]

Decent stuff for decent price.

Good Starter stuff....Been following these guy's since they started. Only own Outdoor speakers and are Very Good.

 

[HiFiThor]

Just curious what else was in"the shop" if Emotiva was the "most expensive equipment"

Well what I should have said was that the main A/V room with the projector was all Emotiva with the exception of the speakers and turntable. The front end electronics was located in another room with balanced wiring leading out to the mono-blocks in the listening room. All remote controlled. During one session the tonearm was dropped a little to quickly producing a huge volume spike and the amps responded very well, the blue light on the front turned red. Someone pushed the red light, it went blue and the session continued. I think we were listening to Megadeath (not my cup of tea but to each their own). Quite an experience to listen to music at appreciable sound levels. I would love to audition this equipment with Magnepans. I think the sweet spot/soundstage is a lot wider with planar speakers. Of course they carry other equipment, Rouge comes to mind and you can spend as much as you like. So there is something for everyone. This is in comparison to another A/V store that I do repair work for. Nothing in that place is affordable. They have a lot of used equipment. Last week they had a set of mono-block tube amps out on the main floor, these were used and the price for those was $16K for each unit. I think the preamp was $15K. I can't recall the manufacturer, someone I never heard of. I asked the owner "Where do you get all this stuff? It is all in pristine condition!" He responded, "It just comes in."

 

[dcmfan]

I would love to audition this equipment with Magnepans. I think the sweet spot/soundstage is a lot wider with planar speakers.

I'm using Emotiva monoblocks with Magnepan speakers. The amps are XPA-100s (360 watts at 4 ohms) and the combination works really well. At one point I also had an Emotiva USP-1 preamp which worked well with my DCM speakers, but was too bright with Dahlquist or Magnepans. I've since replaced the preamp with a tube pre and like the combination of a tube pre with the XPA-100 much better.

Not sure if I agree that the sweet spot / soundstage is wider with planar speakers. For me the Magnepans have about a 2 foot square around my head where the sound is fantastic. If I stand up or move to either side the sound starts to fall off in terms of tone and detail. But in that sweet spot things sound really, really good!

 

[HiFiThor]

I'm using Emotiva monoblocks with Magnepan speakers. The amps are XPA-100s (360 watts at 4 ohms) and the combination works really well. At one point I also had an Emotiva USP-1 preamp which worked well with my DCM speakers, but was too bright with Dahlquist or Magnepans. I've since replaced the preamp with a tube pre and like the combination of a tube pre with the XPA-100 much better.

Not sure if I agree that the sweet spot / soundstage is wider with planar speakers. For me the Magnepans have about a 2 foot square around my head where the sound is fantastic. If I stand up or move to either side the sound starts to fall off in terms of tone and detail. But in that sweet spot things sound really, really good!

I see you are a DCM fan. I have a set of Time Windows, I looked and they don't have a model number only "DCM Time Windows" but are instantly recognizable because of the oval shaped tops. All the drivers work and once I get into my new home I plan on refurbishing them. I have never really listened to them seriously, actually they are in use as my rear speakers for the A/V set up. I will have to put them through their paces once I get the new listening room set up.

 

[runnin']

Good Starter stuff....Been following these guy's since they started. Only own Outdoor speakers and are Very Good.

Good starter stuff, but certainly not the last word in amplification. Anything new from them that does anything digital tends to be buggy at first. I think they've shifted to assembling more in the US, something Schiit Audio has done better, and from the beginning.

 

[04blackmaxx]

I have a UMC-1 which tomorrow will be replaced by a McIntosh MCD500 CD Player. It has served me well for a couple of years and I am very interested to see what the fuss is all about stepping up to the MAC from the Emo, which sounds great to me for the time being.

 

[HiFiThor]

Good starter stuff, but certainly not the last word in amplification. Anything new from them that does anything digital tends to be buggy at first. I think they've shifted to assembling more in the US, something Schiit Audio has done better, and from the beginning.

I thought Emotiva was ALL American made stuff from ore in the ground to the finished product.

 

[roadie1]

I'm listening to my new ATC speakers break in using my USP-1 and XPA -2 thinking that would work while
I look for an amp or separates and found out the longer I listen with the Emotivas, the more I'm seriously thinking about leaving them in place and saving some money. I'm using a TEAC PD-H600 with Kimber 12TC cables.

There truly is a synergy there that I would have never expected. And by the way...those ATC speakers sound pretty damned good.
...R1

 

[runnin']

I thought Emotiva was ALL American made stuff from ore in the ground to the finished product.

What led you to believe that?