Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Does anyone here have any experience with Emotiva?

I just got a refund on my Denon PMA-2000 because it is no longer manufactured so Audiophileliquidators couldn't sell me one. So the hunt for an amp continues... I stumbled across 'Emotiva' who touts itself as an 'affordable audiophile' company. Well if I had a nickel for every company I've seen that advertised something like that...

So anyway if anyone here can vouch for them they do seem very affordable. But the rule of thumb is usually 'you get what you pay for', right? But then again Axiom produces speakers compete against speakers in much higher price ranges from what I've read, so maybe Emotiva is the real deal as well.

A question I do have is I'm looking at the XPA-5 that runs 350 watts to 5 channels at 4 ohms (M80's would have ample power), but what about the other 3 speakers, would running them at 4 ohms damage them? Or is there a way to run the M80's at 4 ohms and the other 3 speakers 8 ohms? It seems to me it has to be one or the other. In that case I'll have to buy the XPA-2 and run all the rest of the speakers from the Denon. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, I'm sure the Denon has more than enough power to run the surrounds cleanly.

Maybe I just answered my own question then... the XPA-2 would probably be the better set-up.

You may want to do a "search" for Emotiva, lots of discussions through the years. Personally, I had bad luck with their MPS-1 shutting down all the time with my m80's. Some others have had the same issues with the XPA series, some have not.

Any receiver and/or amp can drive speakers of different ohm ratings at the same time, you don't change some setting to 4 ohms. That being said, make sure you use a reputable brand AVR that has been proven to not have issues with driving 4 ohms speakers.

Still not sure why you think you need an amp.

Micah, your "hunt" appears to be a bit premature. You shouldn't assume that your 4802 wouldn't be entirely satisfactory for driving the M80s and your other speakers. The M80s are slightly more sensitive than average and therefore require less power than many other speakers. Before looking to spend money on possibly unused power capacity you should try what you have first.

Speakers aren't "run" at any impedance other than what their internal wiring establishes. The impedance of typical speakers varies from about 3 ohms to 20 ohms at various frequencies and it's entirely possible that one speaker in the setup may be at the low end of the impedance range at a particular instant while another is near the top of the range. There's no such thing as a fixed impedance number and this doesn't cause any problem.

Micah, I think you will find your 4802 works very well with the M80s, after all it should be around 180-190 watts/channel into the 4 ohm M80s. however if you still feel the need or possibly more the desire to look for a seperate amp, I would be looking more into Outlaw or as someone recently posted a link to a Crown amp (T1000?) that would work very well with the M80s, that was not too expensive.

Satkartr just tried the XPA2 with his M80s and the amp wouldn't stay on, kept going into protect mode and shut down. I know there have been a few others here that have had the same issue, yet others are happily running emotiva products with M80s so emotiva appears to be a bit of hit or miss.

Wow seriously, the XPA-2 kept shutting down? That's crazy as it is a dedicated 2 x 500 watt amp. I would have thought that would have been PLENTY of power to keep up with the M80's power thirst... at what volume was Mark running it on??? Lol...

Now see that is the prime reason I've been looking for an external amp. When I was pushing my Cerwin Vega's (I'm thinking they were 300 watt speakers, but I can't remember for certain) at very high levels, they would start to sound very strange after a period of time, almost as if someone were playing with the eq or something. I never had another set of speakers to hook up to the Denon so I'm not sure if it was a problem with the speakers, or if it was an issue with the 4802. At any rate I figured a good separate amp couldn't hurt, and would do a better job since all it has to do is worry about power, unlike the reciever which is busy with a whole host of other things at the same time as trying to push clean power into the speakers.

Thanks for the info on different ohms also. I was never really sure how that worked, now I understand it a little bit better. That will certainly help when I'm looking for an amp.

I would bet it is the Cerwins, but not knowing their sensitivty rating etc. it is hard to say. I am willing to bet they are not as efficient as the M80s meaning you had to drive them even harder. You were most likely running the amp to near its max output to achieve the SPL levels you were wanting at the time.

I would kick back, relax and wait to see what the Denon can do on it's own with the M80s hooked before spending more money, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I actually owned Cerwin Vega's years ago. They had horn drivers and as I remember were extremely efficient (more so than the M80s). You must either listen VERY loud, or there may be a problem with your amp. I have the Denon 3806, and I have never had a problem with it shutting down while driving the two M80s, one VP150, and four QS8s, even while playing music in the 90db range.

I'm driving the Epic 80 (7.1) off my Denon 3808 in a 14x20x8 room and have never had the Denon shut down no matter how loudly I've driven the speakers (up to ~105dB just to see how loud it'd go). I can't give much of a review of sound quality at that level as it's just too loud to do anything but cover your ears and wince when it's jamming like that.

I give another vote for "wait and see" with the Denon you have. You would have to have SERIOUS volume requirements or a monstrously big room before you'd need more power than it can provide. It may turn out that you do... However, if you can save yourself the money spent on an amp, you can dump that money into your subwoofer budget (more and/or bigger subs)

I think you'd have a much more noticeable difference putting your money into subs than an external amp to begin with given the nice receiver you already have.

PS: If you're not sold on that advice, this is the Crown amplifier mentioned above ( XTi 1000 ). 500x2 into 4 ohms for $499. Alan has just recently recommended Crown as a manufacturer that has no problem driving the 80s, so I think it's safe to say they come highly recommended.

Jason

Micah, I would not assume you need an extra amp until you try your Denon and then/if you have problems. Heck, my 2805 from 5 years ago drives my 80's with no problems, and I occasionally crank it up.

Hmmm... You guys sure aren't any fun, I was really enjoying my search for a nice 2 channel amp (not the easiest of tasks, but that's what makes it fun!).

Lol, ok ok I do appreciate your attempts to save me some cabbage. I could in turn buy that Denon BluRay player with TrueHD decoding I guess and see what that's all about. I'll have to read up on it some more & see if it plays either DVD audio or SACD... That would really be sweet!