I purchased a Emotiva XPA-5 2nd Gen and I'm happy with the purchase and performance.

 

Thanks for you input. Did you have a first generation Emotiva, or have heard one, and do you see a difference between 1st and 2nd?

 

I do not have a first gen Emotiva, nor have I heard one.

 

I have a pair of xpa-1 and an xpa-5 with an umc-1. This set up replaced my rotel rsx 1065 with out going in to too much detail. The xpa-1 is a purchase that you will never regret. The amp runs cool is deed quit and has all the power you will ever need at a price that just can't be beet. You could spend a lot more and I doubt that you could ear a difference (a lot more) the law of diminishing return. side note the umc-1 is not so good not bad just not so good this is after all the updates. ( after updates it's fine but not great ) at first it was way off and there were people saying how great it sounded. You can ask any one at emotiva and they will tell you when the umc-1 first came out the bass Management was way off. lddude:

 

Audioholics does a very thorough eval of amps.

http://www.audioholics.com/amplifier-reviews/emotiva-audio-xpa-1l-pre

 

That amp may be OK for some speakers but there are speakers it will not drive. When picking a amp the speakers you will be using is a large factor in which amp will or will not work.


Try driving a pair of Infinity kappa 9's with that amp in extended mode and see how it sounds. There are speakers that just about any amp will drive and sound fine and then there are speakers that like setting amps on fire.

 

If you have speakers that a pair of xpa-1 can't drive you need new speakers not a new amp:rolleyesno: