Just wanted to follow up on purchase and experiences.

I bought the XPA-2 and love it. From what I can tell the only difference between it and more epensive amps (Athem for example) is the signal noise floor which is really insignificant. For those of you out there who are using a Denon/Marantz (or similar) Integrated Amplifier to driver your M80s do yourself a favour and buy a separate amplifier.

I normally set my Denon to Direct mode. I find the quality of sound at high volume is the best on Direct rather than an Audyssey setting. From what I understand this sets the speakers to full spectrum (large) and negates any tone adjustments. Otherwise the Audyssey setting are all still applied to the M80s. I find that high quality recordings such as Nora Jones, Diana Krall (track: Narrow Daylight), Pink Floyd DSOTM SACD, Gilberto/Getz & John Mayor sound simply astounding on the M80s at high volume with the XPA-2 driving them. The bass response has improved incredibly. In fact I can listen to the aforementioned recordings without the EP500 engaged without noticing much difference in bass response.

Techno/Trance tracks blow the ceiling off. I've made it a rule to engage the volume limiter on my Denon to 0 (reference) to help protect my ears. On the odd occasion I'll move the volume up beyond reference while standing way back. Wow. I can't say enough good stuff about the M80s performance when driven by a sufficiently powerful amplifier.

I wonder is there any risk in damaging the M80s with XPA-2? At 4ohms the amp is rated at nearly 500W/channel while the M80s max amplifier rating is 400W. Does anyone know what that 400W rating represents. Is it the RMS power, max power or something completely different? I know paradigm speakers list two power ratings a max input power and a RMS power rating which is about half the max.

Thanks for any information on this.

I'm a very happy camper. I do agree now that I need a larger center speaker such as the VP180. Maybe some day. In the mean time I'm on the prowl for any high quality recordings I can find.

Cheers.

Last edited by mrihar; 12/07/15 09:39 PM.