Sorry about the shutting down part I miss-read one of GS951’s comments as yours. OTOH, the issue of QC is still valid in that his XPA-2 is shutting down and yours isn’t with the same speakers, something is causing the 2 amps to behave differently. Any idea if you guys are using the same gauge wire?
Also, this isn’t the only case of the same Emo amp performing differently with the M80s. In many if not most cases they work fine but then occasionally they don’t and Emo says it’s the fault of the speaker.
In your case the mids and highs from the XPA-2 still should not be “harsh/a little strained sounding” playing your M80s full range at 100 dB. How high did you have to pump them up to start hearing this to where applying bass management made such a difference (more bass not withstanding)?
Also I agree with wid that the M80s drivers are not likely bottoming out.
AFAIK no other amp/receiver manufacture’s equipment is doing this. It’s just my opinion but I’m guessing that Emo is pushing the limit on the parts specked for some designs to keep costs down. Get an occasional out of spec part or outright counterfeit in a system already being pushed to the limit and you get problems. I’d love to see someone test all the parts of two Emo amps, one that has issues and another that doesn’t, and see how all the components compare.
