Eskimo1

From what they say, it's overdue.. but such is life with a small company. I'd expect before the end of the year though. It's going to be $299 though..

The MPS-2 is a Class H design, and has a smoother, more laid-back sound, whereas the XPA line is a "in your face" kind of sound, according to Emotiva. If you like classical, traditional jazz, and the like, the MPS would be your ticket.. If you like Rock & Roll, music with electronics (like synthesized bass), home theater, etc.. I think an XPA-5 & 2-channel would be your best bet - that could either be my route of the XPA-5 and UPA-2 with the 2-channel for channels 6&7, or the XPA-5 & XPA-2 combo, with the XPA-2 for the mains. IMO (and this is just me), bi-amping is over-rated in today's world of amplification. In theory I see the benefit, but when you have quality amplifiers with the kind of headroom these Outlaw's and Emotiva's have, one has to wonder if there's a real benefit for the money.. Example- I don't see that 2x UPA-7's would match the sonic quality of a single MPS-2, or either one of my 5+2 combos above... especially on Klipsch speakers that are quite efficient...

If you change the audio coming from your PS3 from HDMI to TOSLINK, you will lose the HD-audio tracks. Only HDMI has the ability to carry the bandwidth needed for them. And because I'm so good at spending other people's money - if you ever add a true 5 or 7 amplifier outboard of the Yamaha's built-in, prepare to hear things you never heard before. I was blown away..

Actually, an RCA cable (single) won't deliver the DD or DTS encoded traffic. a TOSLINK optical or coax digital will, though. To help "future-proof" (as much as could be done anyway) your equipment, I wouldn't choose anything that won't accept audio from HDMI. All the new lossless surround formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc.) (and multi-channel SACD) will only work via HDMI if you want your pre-amp (or receiver) to decode them. Otherwise, you'll need the player to decode it and send it out over 8 channel analog to the pre-amp. TOSLINK or coax digital cannot carry enough bandwidth to transport all this data. Ain't progress great? Back to your amplifier question - I'm running my front 5speakers (KLF-20 mains, KLF-C7 center, and KSP-S6 surrounds) from a 5-channel amp (Emotiva XPA-5, which is 200wpc x5), and currently running the rear 2 surrounds (which are non-matching Klipsch KV-2 centers) off my old receiver while I wait for the Emotiva UPA-2 to be released.(125wpc x2). I wanted to make sure that the main 5 channels had matching timbre and amplification for 5.1 SACD tracks, and for HT, it seems to me that far more information comes from the side surrounds than the rear surrounds for 7.1, so a little mis-match won't hurt on those last 2 channels. The Emotiva amps are an incredible value, and are often reviewed head-to-head against products costing 2-5x as much. The XPA-5 is $799, and the UPA-2 will be $299. There's also the UPA-7 that does 125wpc x7 for $699. Keep in mind their power ratings are always conservative, and done with all channels driven to maximum output. For example, if the rear channels aren't demanding much but the fronts are, the amp can supply more power to the fronts.

Lucky Dog! The sound change was noticable for me when I hit that magic mark..

Just to throw another monkey wrench into the works, there's also the 38% rule, that your seating position should be 38% from the front or rear wall for optimum sound. Amazingly, I haven't heard a single person say that it isn't 100% true! I moved my seat from 14' to 11' 8" and the difference was quite noticable. Unfortunately, sitting that close to the screen was unacceptable to the wife. So I had to move the seats back some, and we're sitting in a bass void.

And just to save more money, it's been shown that in runs of under 10', even the cheapest 28AWG HMDI will work flawlessly. (Don't worry, the cable doesn't look wimpy, and you can get the 28AWG's in all sorts of pretty colors [] (Think WAF!)) Only on longer runs do you need to step up to the thicker wire and/or silver (as opposed to tin) plating. Plus, using the thicker cables on short runs puts more stress on the connectors in your equipment as they're not nearly as flexible- I'm using the 8" 28AWG "port savers" on both ends of my 24AWG run to the PJ from the pre-pro to take the stress off the connectors. My whole HT is wired with Monoprice stuff down to the binding posts on the wall jack.. I've spent about $350 that would have been around $1,000 at a "normal" store!

I'm just now taking the plunge into Blu-Ray & 1080p, as the HT is getting a full overhaul with the new house we just bought. As was said, only some of the newer receivers or pre-pro's seem to be somewhat "future-proofed" by doing what I conisder the big 2: accepting all forms of audio over HDMI and processing all the current surround formats (including all the lossless formats) Upscaling ANY video input (not just HDMI) to a resolution of your choosing, and passing it along to your display. I'm waiting for Emotiva's UMC-1 pre-pro for this, which is due out in a month or so. For $699, it's an absolute steal, but many of the newer receivers can do the 2 biggies I mentioned above. For the source, I'm using a first-gen PS3, which also plays SA-CD. It's much more user-friendly for DVD's/CD's once you add the $15 Nykko IR remote instead of using the game controller. As a BR player, it's always ranked highly, above dedicated BR players in its price range. I'm really trying to put together a HT that has the features of a much higher-poriced setup at a level I can afford, and the PS3 is the cornerstone of that. This year's new HT equipment releases have some really exciting features.. But getting back to the OP's topic, even with a 720p display, I'd try and feed it the best source possible, and then upgrade the display when you can..

Your TVdoesn't have a DTS processor, which isn't surprising, since likely, it's only got 2 mediocre speakers in it anyway, Sounds like the TV won't pass the encoded signal through to the receiver. as was said, I'd run an optical straight to the receiver as well, and just use plain RCA audio if you want to play Xbox just on the TV's speakers.

I just bought an XPA-5 for the front 5 channels, and will be buying a UPA-2 when it's released for the rear 2, since there's far less info and dynamics happening on those. I'm VERY impressed with the sound from the XPA-5 - since my theater is not done yet, I temporarily hooked it up to just my KLF-20 fronts and C7 center, and was blown away by the dynamics it unleashed from them. Previously, I was running it from an Outlaw 1050 receiver, which was a noticable step up from my Pioneer "165wx5" receiver . I'm a total convert over to the Emotiva brand from Outlaw. Outlaw's pricing has moved them away from what made me like them so much - great quality at a fantastic price - now they're too expensive to have that title. Plus, IMO, the Emotiva stuff just LOOKS nicer.

Along those lines... I have KLF20 fronts, C7 center, and KSP-S6 surrounds, but need 2 more for the 6.1/7.1rear surround. The KSP-S6's are hard to find at a reasonable price, and I'm not so sure that there'd be a noticable difference in sound by using something different for the rears (IIRC, not a *ton* of detailed information comes through them) Has anyone used or has a good recommendation for the rear surrounds other than the S6's? They will need to be wall mounted. I was thinking something along the lines of the RS3-2, or similar... or will I be hating myself? I do have a KV-2 that was my old center channel, maybe I could use it and find a match?