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Emotiva XSP 1 with an AVR!? Will it work? Worth it?

M

MNSLD2

Active Member
Hi
I recently heard a demo from Emotiva dealer.
The set up comprised of-
Emotiva XSP 1
XPA Gen3
ELAC B6 (debut)
DAC EGO

The sound was breath taking. Ultra soothing, highly detailed, full separation of instruments. Beautiful mids and highs. Mid bass and lows were decent. I wouldn't say amazing. Probably due the size of speakers. It kinda felt like a need of sub in it, for some of the music that was played. But thats just me I guess.
In a small to mid size room, I would say, a sub will not be needed. This set up was in a hotel conference room which was a little bigger for the bookshelf speaker. So I will give it a benefit for loosing the depths in the lows.

Now my question is, if I use the Emotiva XSP 1 pre and hook it up to my AVR, will be a worth of a try or it is worthless cos an AVR at the end will not do any justice to the sound processing of XSP 1?
The AVR is Yamaha rx v475.
 
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It would only work in a way, but not really as intended. And no, it wouldn't really be worth it, as the RX-V475 would indeed still remain as weak link - especially as its feature-set in terms of analogue I/Os is somewhat limited, as it doesn't sport any pre-outs and main-ins except for the sub-out, so one can neither directly access its power-amp section with an external pre-amp, nor can one go the other way and route its front L/R pre-amp outs through a stereo integrated amp with switchable "power-amp-direct input", which would otherwise be a pretty attractive way to combine surround and stereo.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: To make the latter approach possible, one could improvise a little, though. I.e., one could grab the front L/R signal from the speaker outputs via voltage dividers instead - not quite as direct a path as with front L/R pre-outs, but most probably hardly worse in quality. And it would still serve the purpose of relieving the surround receiver from front L/R power-amp duty.

So that way you could still gain quality in stereo as well as in surround, if you'd combine the Yamaha that way with an amp like for example the Marantz PM8005.
 
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It would work better with a power amp... but you could use it in that configuration until you got one.. you can get a decent power amp for not that much. Adcom, Denon, Onkyo, nad, niles and many others etc.. you can pick up good amps for around $200 and that emotiva and a separate amp will sound way better than an AVR.. that pre-amp has fully balanced inputs and outputs so if you can, look for an amp with those. Should give you a clearer audio signal and more gain. That emotiva has fully analog sub out's.. it's one I'm looking at and when I've got the money, will probably get.
 
Agreed. The amp in the AVR is the weak link here. If you are trying to budget the expense over time, I would add an amp to the AVR first (if the AVR has pre-out), then budget for the preamp later.
 
SounderMN said:
Agreed. The amp in the AVR is the weak link here. If you are trying to budget the expense over time, I would add an amp to the AVR first (if the AVR has pre-out), then budget for the preamp later.
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The AVR doesn't has a pre outs (except for the sub). So all i was thinking was to use AVR as an amp for time being. Although that pre xsp1 is also expensive enough.. :p
 
On the Emotiva Forum, there is a section called "Emporium" where people sell used gear. You might find one there for a nice discount.
 
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