mrseamus

Rock On, There is an XPA-3 on Audiogon right now for $400. I already reserved the UPA-2

Wuzzer, Thats exactly what I was thinking. UPA $269 new from Emotiva or do I hold out and try to find an XPA-2 or even a XPA-3 used. I think there is one now for $400. I guess it doesn't make sense to purchase a 3 channel amp and only use 2 channels to get more wpc.

Ok, So far, Very impressed with Emotiva. Ordered the UMC-1 and the XPA-5 last Sunday. It arrived on Wednesday!! (3 Business days). I let them sit in the shipping boxes for a day, then I had to open the boxes and at least pull out the owners manuals. The plan was to pull out the Pioneer and convert the HT system on Saturday (Yesterday). I unpacked the two units from the outer boxes and moved the inner boxes to the floor in front of the HT system. Being a newbie to separate components, I forgot to order the interconnects!! (Damn....Back to the Emotiva website. Ordered the interconnects yesterday, so hopefully they will arrive early next week. So the wife goes to the beach yesterday and comes home and says " when are you hooking up the new system?". She says she wants the boxes off the floor, but secretly, I know she can't wait to hear it. Although the existing system sounds very good with the Pionner, I am encouraged by the responses received so far validating the improvement that I can expect from the Emo gear. Only thing left to purchase now will be a 2-channel amp for the rear surrounds (7.1). If I had spent the extra $719 on the XPA-2, I definitely would be a "dead man" by now. Happy, but dead. I only hope someone will be interested in the old gear that has found it's way to my closet to offset some of this expense. Hey, perhaps I could work out a trade for the XPA-2. Anyway, I will let you all know when I get everything connected and running. I can't wait!

Well, Here we go again. I waited, but I just couldn't let it pass. I pulled the trigger on the UMC-1 and the XP-5. The way I figure it, It will only be a few hours before my wife checks her e-mail and sees the verification/receipt from Emotiva. She does enjoy watching movies, and I know she is secretly very impressed with the HT System. I have read that the emotiva amps make the RF-7's sing. I cant wait to hear them. I only hope I live long enough to hear them. My wife is going to kill me!

If I am not mistaken, Youthman has a nice pair of RB-35's which would be a great start. Youthman is a very reputable forum member and provides sound advice (no pun intended) to several new and older members alike. You should be able to find a great deal on a RC-35. If you can't, let me know. I have one that I could probably part with. That would get you a decent center stage. You could then search for a pair of reference surrounds. As previously advised, take your time and look for the good deals. They are out there. If you rush to put a system together, you will be forever upgrading. No wait, you will be continually upgrading anyway. Hasn't anyone told you about the madness??? Good Luck. Let us know what you decide.

Ironically, I just let my brother borrow War of the worlds suggesting that it was a good movie for him to watch. Never thought about re-watching it myself. I will check it out as soon as he returns it. good suggestion.

So there is credibility to a pair of PB 12's? Does it make a big difference having a pair?

Just picked up an SVS PB12 Plus/2 last week in Tampa. WOW! what a difference! This sub sounds amazing and blends perfectly with the 7's!. Even the wife who refers to it as a "speaker" and says I can't believe you are going to spend 6 hours in the car to go pick it up, was actually blown away by the difference this made in our HT system. As you will see from my previous posts, I could never get the SVS CS Ultra to hit the way I felt it should. I am still not certain that there is anything wrong with it. It does work, however just seemed to lack the punch. Probably user error with connecting a passive sub I hope. Hopefully, I will find a "sub-buff" here locally in Jacksonville that will be interested in taking this and/or the Sub 12 off my hands at a reasonable price. In the interim, I am spending all my time re-watching all my favorite Blu Rays (Transformers and Transformers 2, Hulk, Star Trek, etc.) I went out and purchased 2012 to be the first movie we watched with the new sub, what a choice! Amazing lows in this movie. The sub is only turned uo about 1/3 of the way or I am certain I could tell the stories about blowing stuff off the walls. This sub certainly has the ability to do that. After puchasing this sub, I couldn't help but notice that there is another of the same sub available within reasonable driving distance from me. My wife says NO WAY do you need another one.....Are you kidding me. If I can sell the other two reasonably quick, I fully intend to have a pair of PB 12/2's in my system. Other than the Cherry 7's this is the best money spent on my HT.

CEC Not to sound stupid, but I have no idea what a DVOM is.....I checked my voltage meter just in the event it had an OHM setting. It does not. I am assuming I will have to buy one? Wuzzer: I thought about running the speaker wires from each channels positive terminals, but the manual says when running in bridged mono output to run the one speaker into either the upper left or upper right binding post. I decided not to attempt it the other way because I don't want to do damage to the sub. Could this be a power supply problem as I have the amp, receiver and all components plugged into an APC surge protector. Perhaps I should run the amp on a different circut? I know reading this post is getting very boring, however, your continued help is greatly appreciated. I know this must be a simple fix. Should I just go ahead and purchase the Dayton HPSA - 1000 from Parts Express? If I was certain this would fix the problem, I would do it in a minute. I would hate to think there is something wrong with the sub.

I increased the sub output on the receiver to 10db. Better, but not what it should be. The Sub 12 still blowing away the CS Ultra. Somethings not right.

Ok. The gemsound has no dip switches, but there are two knobs on the front. I am assuming gain? The range goes clockwise from 33 - 0 on each. I have tried them all the way up and all the way down. No change. There is also a bridge switch on the back. I have also tried that in both positions with no change. The subwoofer is activating but there is no umph at all. When I listened to it before I bought it everything appeared to be working properly. This is not likely a sub problem is it? What is to a passive sub other than the woofer and binding posts? I have a Dayton subwoofer sitting in the shopping cart of my Parts Express account. I don't mind pulling the string for a new amp if I have to, but I would hate to think that the sub is bad. That thought hurts. I am going to try adjusting the output signal to the sub to see if that makes a difference. My wife hates when I do this.......

That is correct. The RCA Cable to the amp's input. I can pull it out an put it back in the Sub 12 and all is well so I know it is not the cable. The amp is connected to the CS Ultra with 16 gauge speaker wire from the L channel binding posts to the binding posts on the bottom of the sub.

As I anticipated, I am having trouble connecting my receiver (Pioneer 1016) and the Gem Sound amp to the SVS CS Ultra. I pulled to subwoofer cable that was plugged into the Sub 12 and placed it into one of the RCA ports on the back of the Gem Sound Amp. I have tried this both on a single channel and bridged. I appear to be getting only a minimal signal to the amp. (Less than 5 watts). This all seemed pretty basic, however, obviously I am not doing something right. I do intend on upgrading the amp, however, I wanted to be able to hear the sub so I could measure the difference. Any assitance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for all the feedback. When listening to the Ultra connected to the GemSound, it sounded good, but I kinda expected that from SVS. I was encouraged after reading Wuzzer's response that an audiophile amp is not required to drive a sub. Then came the comments about negative reports on the GemSound. Now I am torn between laying out some more cash for an amp. Everytime I upgrade something, the wife keeps saying "are you done yet? After I brought home the big ole Ultra (That took up the whole back seat)......I told her I was nearly done. Therefore, I may be able to spend a bit more for the right amp. Thanks for the suggestions of crown and behringer as well as the link for parts express. I was actually looking at the behringer EP 2500. Would this work well with the CS Ultra? Specs say it is a two channel amp pushing 1200 per channel. Guess I have to do some research to understand the 2 ohm, 4 ohm and 8ohm thing. Any further feedback would be appreciated.

Hello all, I just purchased a SVS CS Ultra sub. It came with a Gemsound Amp EXA 2955. Having never heard of Gemsound, I am assuming it is a low-end amp. I was hoping someone here might suggest a more appropriate amp to push the CS Ultra. Any adivse would be greatly appreciated. Also, any tips on hook-up would also be very helpful. Thanks