Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Emotiva XPA-3 with M22's

Last week I purchased 3 M22 in walls and 4 QS8's to use in a media room I'm building. I'm looking at amps now and leaning towards the Emotiva XPA-5 and XPA-3. They are both 200w per channel. Looking at the specs I know that would be fine for the QS8's since they are rated for up to 400w, but what about the M22's? Would those amps be overkill with the M22 only rated for 200w or should it be fine?

Before it's mentioned, I realize those two amps have a total of 8 channels and I only listed 7 speakers. My garage/workshop is right next to the new media room so I can use the extra channel to power a single speaker in my workshop.

People do more damage to speakers by using under-powered amps that they drive into clipping. That being said, that might be more power than you really need. It all depends on what you listen to, how loud, how big is the room, whether or not you have a sub, etc., etc..

Thanks for the reply Mark. I listen to mainly hard rock / metal. Old stuff like Ozzy, AC/DC, and Metallica up to newer stuff like Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, and Alter Bridge, and Stone Sour. I like to listen loud too. Also, the speakers are being used for movies. That was why I went with the in-walls for LCR. They will be behind an AT projector screen. Movies are a mix, but mainly action and sci-fi. The room is 12ftx25ft with 8ft ceilings. For a sub, I hava a SVS PB-1000. Will have I should say. That was just recently ordered and awaiting arrival as well.

As ian would say, you can never have too much power, or was that tim taylor I have a xpa3 and an xpa5 ,great amps they do not disappoint . I really wanted an ADA amp but the dentist had a different idea for my money.

They can handle the xpa3.. I tried them on the XPA5, UPA2 and my Yaqin MC10T tube amp. I even tried them on a Behringer EP2500. You can drive them really hard.

thanks guys! My new speakers should be delivered tomorrow and XPA3 and XPA5 being delivered beginning of next week. I can't wait!

But you must bahahahaa

I won't have as long to wait as I thought. UPS must be working overtime cause I got a tracking update with a delivery date of Friday

Material for my AT screen is coming near the end of next week. Framing, insulation, drywall, etc. took a long time but I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

They are here!



Now I have to get a receiver....

Exciting and depressing at the same time. Now hurry up and get to work.

I like how simple the inwall M22 looks.

Yep. Love that they are sealed so I didn't need to build backer boxes.

That being said, that might be more energy than you really need.

Here is a link to my setup, in case you haven't seen it! I have had them for almost two years, and they have been quite good! I am using the Denon 2313 to power them.

Link:

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php/galleries/382567/Ski_Chalet_2_1

I like how the the drivers look through the metal grill.

Enjoy.

Very nice! Love that wood cabinet you have under your TV.

Got some work done in my basement over the weekend. Got all the walls painted and picked out my stain for the trim and wainscoting. Will have wainscoting on all but the front wall.

You'll be happy with your amp; looks like a great setup to me.

Thanks Adrian.

The speakers and amps are awesome! Definitely glad I went with Axiom instead of listening to the haters on "that other forum". Still haven't picked out a receiver yet, but have been doing some two channel listening the last couple weeks by connecting my laptop headphone out to the amp while working downstairs. Listened to the M22's most of the time but used the QS8's the last few days. Impressed with both of them. Definitely need a couple sub's though. On that note, I never got the SVS sub. Decided to build a custom cabinet for dual 15's that I can place under the screen. Will be 8' wide but only stick out from the wall about 8" instead of having a giant cube sitting out in the room. Better WAF approval with this idea.

stoud:

Several of us have been countering the BS that the few 'haters' out there have been spreading whenever they have the slightest opportunity. Nice to see that perhaps some good has come of it.

I have the M22s in my HT that each has its own Velodyne 10" sub (as stands) plus my new QS8s in the rear as well. My recent VP160 purchase has stepped it up another notch.

It's a modest system but does the job very well & it brings a lot of enjoyment to our household...

TAM

Here's what I have so far. It's finally starting to look like a room Another trip to Lowes today to pick up all of the doors, trim, pine 1x8's to frame out the alcove on right and put in shelves, and ordered the drop ceiling tiles. So much done, but so much more to go.

At least I can have some good tunes while I finish up the rest.

TAM, some good definitely came from it. Some of your posts over there helped me make my final decision to give Axiom a chance. Hey, maybe you should ask Ian for a commission.

Exciting and depressing at the same time. Now hurry up and get to work.

Huh?

Please let me know how you are finding the Emotiva XPA-3 as I am looking for an upgrade/new amp for my HT room and would like a real persons opinion on how they sound rather than relying on rumour.

Sorry for the late reply. Been busy working on the room and enjoying the setup. A lot of enjoying and a little work to be honest. Work on the room has slowed to a crawl on this project. lol.

About the XPA-3, I highly recommend it. I have the XPA-3 and XPA-5 and both are rack mounted at the top of the rack so they sit close to the ceiling and have all of the other equipment under them. Even in that configuration I have had 0 issues with overheating. I've had 0 issues with clipping. And the power they give to the speakers is awesome. There have been days that I've played music at reference levels for 10 hours straight because I leave the door between media room and garage open and listen to tunes while I'm working and not a single issue during any of my prolonged use sessions. I would honestly say I have really beaten on these amps, and the speakers, in the couple of months I've used them and they are working flawlessly.

Here's a small update on some of what I've got accomplished in my HT so far.

Built my DIY dual 15" ported sub box. And I made the mistake of connecting it before filling, sanding, and painting. I'll disconnect it to do that eventually....



I also got my AV rack built into the wall. I didn't have all of my equipment screwed into the rack yet when I took the picture, but a rack is a rack I guess. Still need to put the wood trim around it.

SO cool. Are you using that Behringer amp for the sub? Tell me more?

Yep, the Behringer is for the subs. It's an iNuke 3000DSP. The subs are Dayton Audio Ultimax 15". I used Dayton's recommendation of a 6ft3 ported box with 6 lbs of polyfill and just doubled it since both subs were going in the same box. I went with their recommendation as well with tuning it to 18hz and used Unibox to figure out the length of the port due to the changes I made. I haven't insulated the ceiling in the room yet so these results hopefully won't be typical, but I was watching Jurassic Park 3D with the kids (HT is in basement) while my wife was in bed (2nd floor bedroom) and when the T-Rex appeared the first time and roared she came down and told me to turn it down because she heard it from the bedroom and felt the bed vibrate. :-D

Obviously I'll lower the bass level when I calibrate everything, but it's new so I had to play with it and see what it could do. Lol.

I'll bet it sounds great! That box must weigh a ton. I really like the look of those drivers.

Thanks for sharing the details of your project and your room. Very inspiring!

Thank you very much for the kind words. It does weigh a ton too. It's 8 ft x 21 in x 16 in and took about two and a half sheets of MDF to build. I haven't decided yet but I think I'm going to paint the top the same black as I have on the screen wall and the front and sides finish in cherry stained wainscoting and trim like the other 3 walls of the room are done in.

I REALLY like your approach.

I think putting M22's behind an AT screen is a great idea, and tucking that monster sub in the space below/behind the screen is brilliant, too. Having the rack built-in will look very elegant. Great choices all around! Wish I had the right space to do something similar.

Have you picked out your screen, yet? Did the selection of an AT screen influence other choices you made (like which projector, wall colors, etc)?

Nick has a really great thread about his HT build, but he's so fricking perfect that it makes me sick. Plus, I like to learn from various people.

Man, that is A LOT of sub.

I know what you mean about Nick's theater. Very awesome. I especially like the custom fabric on his acoustic panels. That really adds something to the room IMO instead of just being the typical black rectangles you see in other builds.

The AT screen hasn't affected any of my choices but the room itself affected my decision of going with an AT screen and the in-wall M22's. The entrance to my room is right at the front left corner so I didn't have the option of building a false wall like Nick and others have done. And I couldn't put the screen on the opposite wall without some semi major construction because there is a storage room in the back that also houses the big water distribution box that all the pex lines connect to and my water heater is in there too. That narrowed my choices down to either doing in-walls and an AT screen or doing towers that I would have to side step past to get into the room. I was OK with the 2nd option but my wife wasn't. So in-walls and AT screen it was. The sub box is actually in your line of sight when you come into the room. That's how close the entrance is to that front wall.

For the screen itself, that will be DIY as well. For about $75 I can build a frame out of 1x4's and wrap it in matte white milliskin spandex. I already have the material, just waiting until the rest of room is done before building it as I don't want to get the dust/dirt on it from the other projects. Making due with a bed sheet for now. Lol. I've read that the spandex will work just as good as factory screen material so I figured it was worth a shot to save some cash. If I don't like it and decide to go with a Seymour or something I'm only out $75 and I'll know for next time.

I've finally got my sub box filled, sanded, sealed, and painted. Also have the 135" screen built. Mostly. Just picked up some black velvet today to wrap trim pieces with that are going around all four sides of the frame. Might get to that this weekend. I finally had time to get the drop ceiling and can lights put in too. Some minor stuff left to do, like some shelving and trim work left, but finally getting close to finished. Hoping to find a good July 4th sale this weekend to get the carpet ordered.