*** UPDATE ***
Ok so I had mentioned this would be more of a 'long term' report as opposed to hearing it out of the box and giving my write-up on the XPA-3. Well it's been about a month now so I figured I'd give my impressions so far.
I won't rehash all of the fidelity improvements I stated earlier, all I'll say is they haven't changed. As far as reliability issues go... well that's a little up in the air right now. If you'll recall I was working feverishly on getting the 12 volt trigger working between the Denon and the Emotiva. Their plugs weren't the same, so I had to make it a DIY project, getting my parts down at the Shack. After trying a few connects that didn't work, I finally found a set of plugs that did the job. I was able to plug the one connect into the Denon, and the other one slipped right into the back of the Emotiva. So I figured my 12 volt trigger was done.
But I was mistaken.
When I turn the Denon on and off it has no effect on the Emotiva what-so-ever. If the Emotiva is off and I turn the Denon on... the Emotiva stays off. If the Emotiva is on and I turn the Denon off the Emotiva stays on. So for now I'm stumped as to what to do for the 12 volt trigger. Why does this all matter you ask??? Well the Emotiva has at times switched to protect mode on me, and I was trying to get the 12 volt trigger up and running so that whenever the Denon was on it would send a constant signal to the Emotiva to keep it on. It seems as though the XPA-3 goes into protect mode out of confusion more than anything. For instance in all this time I've only actually noticed the amp going into protect mode once during musical playback. Upon noticing that, interested in whether or not it was somehow the pull from the speakers during that particular passage that sent it into protect mode, I turned the amp back on and played the exact same song, at the exact same volume and everything... it made it through the song unscathed the second time (and every other time since then I might add).
It's gone into protect somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 to 8 times since I hooked it up. But, the interesting thing is it's never when you'd think it would. For instance you'll remember the first time I noticed the red light blinking, it was after I'd turned the Denon off without turning off the Emotiva. Well every other time the red light has started blinking it's been at odd times, like once I hit the eject button on the DVD player and it started blinking? There wasn't even any music or anything playing, so how could it need protecting? All the other times, besides the single musical passage I mentioned above, has been while I've been switching the Denon from once source to the next. Mind you it's not EVERYTIME I switch the source, but the few times it's gone into protect, that's usually when it does so. Again there was never anything even playing when this was going on, so it seems to me that for what ever reason, when the Emotiva has NOTHING being sent to it, it goes into protect mode. Strange.
It's nothing more than an annoyance mind you. Once the red light starts flashing I just turn the unit off, turn it right back on and she's good to go. But that was why I was trying to get the 12 volt trigger to work. I figured if it were fed a constant signal, perhaps it would stop doing this. But I have never once been able to drive it into protect mode while really pushing the system. I can play it loud and strong all I want, the XPA-3 takes it all in stride. And it does so without ever getting more that a little warm to the touch. I've played it 6 hours straight at fairly challenging levels and felt her and the Denon felt warmer than she did.
So all in all a month has passed and besides a small irritation that may or may not have a resolution, the Emotiva has me grinning from ear to ear whenever I'm playing my system. Perhaps there are other amps out there that never shut down inexplicably like this once has (and maybe this one won't either once I figure out the 12 volt trigger). But I doubt many of those can give me this much performance for such a small price tag.
For all I've gotten out of the Emotiva at this incredible price point, I'll flick the power button every so often (it's averaged two blinking lights per week so far).... no biggie!
P.S. (another theory I had was that we had our circut overloaded up until this past Friday. Everything in the room was all on one breaker. When the air conditioner would kick on the lights would dim and all that jazz. So we put the electronics on a separate breaker than everything else, and put the computers on yet another separate breaker. Perhaps is was the strain on the system that contributed to the Emotiva going into protect??? We'll have to wait and see I suppose. I haven't noticed the red light blinking since Friday though!)
