Quote:

Update: Well I worked with Emotiva today over the phone. For starters, they went out and purchased a Radio Shack Analog meter like mine. In their labs they use much higher quality test equipment, for example, "Audio Toolbox" meters. This way they could try to recreate what I was seeing on my meter.

Anyway, their initial findings was that the amp was truely meeting the specs of 300 watts into 4 ohms, in fact, it was actually reading 380 watts when the amp protection kicked in.

Another finding, was that the Radio Shack meter is great for calibration of speakers, but not really the best for lab test readings. During the dynamic parts of songs where the RS meter would jump from 110dB to 115 or 116dB, their more accurate Audio Toolbox meters were showing 20+dB jumps.

Now, the conversation moved onto the amps Wave Form Limiter? I really didn't understand what this does, but it sounds like this was the main reason the amps are shutting down. Emotiva mentioned the amps will do 780 watts RMS no problem, from past tests in the lab, however, I believe this Wave Form Limiter protection restricts what gets passed onto the speakers?

I talked to Axiom, and was told the 80's have been run for 2weeks straight at 24hrs a day at 700 watts continuous with peaks reaching 1100 watts, while testing the new amp line. So I know the Axioms can handle the wattage.

Resolution:

Emotiva showed me with very detailed instructions/pictures how to remove one of the resisters which gives the Wave Form Limiter its input signal. I"m not worried about making this modification, as I've worked a little on circuit boards/soldering, etc.. Basically it just involves removing this resister with some small snips, no problem.

The tests Emotiva did today, showed that with the amps being pushed very hard, they will produce just over 1KW. The Resistor being removed is where the Wave Form limiter gets it’s input signal from. Now by removing it, this will disable the limiter whereby making the amplifier like most amps on the market today. The amp is still a dual tracking class H design and the protection circuit is still in place, only the limiter has been disabled.

Without the limiter it is possible to get out peaks in excess of 1KW if pushed hard enough which would easily toast most speakers. I would not recommend this modification if your not having a problem, and would contact Emotiva if you are...

Randy




I just happened to be in the Emotiva lab Friday while Robert and Dan were doing the second of these procedures for another unamed client. I watched as they tested an amp module using a subwoofer. I can attest that the amp was pushing beyond 300 watts.

I will have more to say later about my visit with Emotiva.

I also went back today and bought an MMC-1.