not sure if I have been living under a rock or what, but I have not heard about the upcomming emotiva XPA-1 until today.
http://www.emotiva.com/extreme.html

http://www.audioholics.com/news/press-re...search-hospital

at 1000 wpc into 4 ohms I could drive my m80's to levels that I can hear down the street! hmmm... I would love to have 2 of these, but $1800 for two versus the $800 for one XPA-2 is tough to swallow.

I will definitely put the XPA-1 on my list of stuff that I really want but don't need... right under the ep800

the XPA2 is rated 1kw into 8ohms when bridged, And its cheaper.

Im not really sold on the emotiva stuff myself. I cant stand the looks and I just really am not sold on the quality.

I have the emo xpa5 and mmmc1 powering my axiom setup and must say they are excellent! the build quality is great. Music has never sounded so good. when emo releases the xmc1 processer, dual subs, and the cd player you can bet they will all be in my theater! Plus everything comes with a 5 year warranty just like axiom

If you are worried about the quality of emo products here is a quote from audioholics on their new surroud speakers:

Right from the beginning, I suspected that Emotiva had something special with their ERD-1 dipole speakers. The Axiom QS8's are a very highly regarded rear "quad" pole speaker (a top and bottom woofer and two side angled tweeters - one on each side all firing in phase). I was surprised to find that the ERD-1s bested the Axioms on almost every metric I could come up with. The opening sequence of the first and title track features a keyboard bouncing around the rears and what sounds to be a train pulling into a station. The ERDs really performed well not only during the quiet section at the very beginning but also in remaining articulate during the louder sections. At no point did I think the ERDs were being overpowered or drowned out. At the same time, they blended well with the rest of the system. Basically, when I wanted to hear them I could, when I didn't, they just disappeared. While some might say that a bipole configuration would be best for multichannel music, I found the dipole setting to create a nice diffuse sound that still performed well for point-source effects. As always, we encourage you to experiment for yourself and see what you prefer. Just make sure to check your levels as you switch between the settings as the levels are likely to change. While I've always found the Axioms to be a fine surround speaker, the ERDs are in an entirely different class.

I realized that you could get 2 XPA-2's and use them in bridged mode and save $200... Something tells me that is not the same as having a single monoblock amp that has the same power... not sure though.

I don't know if I will go with Emotiva, or if I will even add a seperate amp at all (My 3808 does a great job for all but the loudest volumes)... but if I do the XPA-1 or XPA-2 will be on my shortlist. Unfortunately the A-1400-A is out of my price range. Maybe axiom will come out with a 2 channel amp by then

I'm in the same boat David. I have the Denon 3806, I would really like separate amplification for the M80's. I looked at the Outlaw 2200's, but I would really like something rated 500W @ 4 ohms to match up with the two EP500s I have.

The M80s can only handle 400 watts right? perhaps I don't fully understand the technicals of those things...

They're extremely conservatively rated. Axiom tests them with multi-thousand watt amps. Of course, in normal use, they're unlikely to get anywhere near 400 watts, much less several thousand.

Hut, the 80's can handle a lot more than 400 watts. The torture test of playing Slayer at 700 watts continuous for 100+ hours with peaks of 1,000 watts....

http://www.axiomaudio.com/research_PowerTestRoom.html

Wow, interesting link Randy. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why Axiom lists the max power so much lower than this test indicates?

Perhaps so perspective customers don't think they need 1000 Watt amps to drive them for normal listening.

100hours with 700watts, now that is ear bleeding levels.

Clearly there's a reason that room has 2 iron doors separating it from the rest of the offices. Can you imagine what that would do to you??? Hearing Slayer at 700 watts for 5 days straight, there would be lots of grumpy folks walking around the Axiom offices during that test!

So, I don't really understand how a seperate amp works with an av receiver. I know you plug it into the pre outs on the receiver. Then is the seperate amp the only thing that powers the speakers that are plugged into said amp? Or can you also use power from the receiver on those speakers? If not, what happens to the power from the receiver? Sorry for such a basic question, but I would also like to have more power some day, just don't really understand how it works.

Matt, when the pre-outs on the receiver are connected to a separate amplifier to feed signal voltages to it and that amplifier is connected to the speakers, then the separate amplifier amplifies the signal voltages about 30 times so that they're strong enough to drive the speakers loudly. Since the amplifier in the receiver isn't connected to any speakers(and can't be connected to the same speakers as is the separate amplifier), it doesn't have to output any power and it's just idling.

You shouldn't necessarily "like to have more power" unless the maximum capacity of what you have isn't enough for the source material and the sound level that you're using(not likely with a powerful amplifier such as the one in your 805). Spending money on something that you want but don't need may mean not using your limited amount of money on something in life that's more important.

Hehe, thanks John.