Emotiva XPR-5 or Parasound A51 for RF-7 II home cinema system?

[W27]

I was trying to stay out of this one, but I'll add my experience so Reference Head isn't alone. Long story short... I ordered an XPA-2, XPA-5, and a ERC-2 a couple years ago. The CD player was first, it's still in my bedroom and I'm very happy with it. Then the XPA-2 I ordered next. the first one I got was defective. The tech had me going through hours of ridiculous test to try to fix the problem. It would turn off and on by itself. It showed crazy light patterns on the LCD and then would just shut down. They had me go buy a can of compressed air to spray in the vents of the amp because they said it was common for static build up during shipping to wreak havoc on the circuit boards. Seriously? Of course that did nothing. They then asked if I was comfortable opening the unit up to check some of the connections. Any other company would have voided my warranty on the spot for cracking it open. I'm actually an Engineer by trade, but they didn't know that. After opening it all up and tracing all the leads, I did get the unit to function properly. I never pin pointed the problem, but it did go away by what I assume was a lose connection.

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The XPA-2 was powerful, and I liked the looks of the Emotiva stuff. It sounded good. I was running it on a set of B&W 804's. I then ordered the XPA-5. Then I connected everything to my Klipsch system which is 2 RF-7II's and 5 RF-7's. There was definitely a noticeable hiss from every speaker. That was tolerable, my listening position is far enough away I couldn't hear it from my seat. However, the low frequency hum coming from the XPA-5 to the RF-7's was not. Again hours on the phone with Emotiva... Their customer service is very good. However the first couple guys you talk to will put you through the most ridiculous steps before you get to speak to someone who actually works on the amps. I even bought all new wires and a Panamax M5400 PM with voltage regulation, which made no difference. They wanted to exchange my XPA-5 until I spoke with their lead engineer. I was concerned because by time they exchanged the amp I would have been over the 30 day return and would have had to keep it even if the new one hummed. I was told that there was a compatiblity problem between their amps and my Integra processor. After all that I just returned the amps.

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Conclusion... Even though they do offer a 30 day trial, I had to pay around $80 each amp and deal with repackaging the 90 lb boxes and dragging them back to fedex. Plus two weeks of aggravation and stress. The folks at Emotiva told me themselves that the high gain on the amps is what causes the hiss in the Klipsch. With less efficient speakers speakers it isn't really an issue. It also gives the illusion of being more powerful. You'll have noticeably more volume at the same level on your preamp than you would with most amplifiers. The XPR-5 looking at the specs has a lower gain. It may be a better match for Klipsch.

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When this initially happened I posted my experiences on the Emotiva forum. I was attacked from numerous members, blaming me for the amps. Before I responded to one comment the whole thread was deleted! I posted a new thread, was attacked again, and it was deleted. I'm glad there's a lot of you that have had god luck with your Emotiva stuff. Most I've talked to have had warranty claims on pieces less than a few years old. Thers's not much in their price range, but I believe they have some quality control issues.

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So much for not making a long story lol As far as the Parasound... I had a A21 with a P3 for a while. They were nice, but I felt overrated. They didn't do anything wrong, they were very neutral. The bass didn't have a lot of authority, really just nothing stood out as special with the combo. I saw in your other post you were considering a Marantz preamp. I'd take a good look at the matching Marantz amps. They match well with Klipsch to my ears. If you'll consider a used amp I think you'd have a lot of better options in that price range. A good amp should have no problem going 20+ years without service, and they don't go obsolete like your processor will.

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FYI... I'm a horrible typer. It took me a long time to write this. I'm exhausted now and going to bed lol I hope my post doesn't offend anyone. Just telling my experience with them.

[Heritage_Head]

Was not really expecting very much support because i know how loved emotiva is on these forums. The OP has the same speakers as me and im not totally satisfied with my experence with the two matched with each other. Being that they say the same thing about high sensitive speakers and the amps they build i thought it was good information to the OP. I dont think i did but i am sorry if anyone was offended but any of my comments or opinions. []

[derrickdj1]

No offense should be taken. We share our experience and observations on different gear and what other decide to do with it is up to them. The issue you brought is common enough that it is not the horse of a different color that we have all heard about and never seen.[]

[Fish]

No offense should be taken. We share our experience and observations on different gear and what other decide to do with it is up to them. The issue you brought is common enough that it is not the horse of a different color that we have all heard about and never seen.

Exactly.

[Rich_Guy]

Was not really expecting very much support because i know how loved emotiva is on these forums. The OP has the same speakers as me and im not totally satisfied with my experence with the two matched with each other. Being that they say the same thing about high sensitive speakers and the amps they build i thought it was good information to the OP. I dont think i did but i am sorry if anyone was offended but any of my comments or opinions.

No offense taken and everyone should share their experience. I was just wanting it known you had a bad experience but from my own and from what I've heard from others that's not very common compared to what most people are experiencing. There have been many people here on the forum using Emotiva XPA amps with RF-7's who love them and I'm very happy with how they work with my RF-5's.

My own experience with my Emotiva amps I have been very impressed by how quiet they are, I am also impressed by how cool they run there is very little warmth coming from my amps even after they have been used all day and night long they are nearly cool to the touch. The noise floor is dead silent and the sound quality has been very nice.