Adcom 565 vs Emotiva xpa-1


Deciding what pair of mono block for a Biamp- lowend situationCrossover at 200hz, 90 db efficiency. Tube monblock Highs.The Adcoms are decent as I loaned out  a pair years ago and put them side by side with a Krell Ksa250  driving B$w 801#3.  Only thing the krell exceeded in was a less metallic.returned the adcoms in 2 hours, as I found out what i needed to know, In sane impedance loads the 565 Dittoed... the krell...
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Deciding what pair of mono block for a Biamp- lowend situationCrossover at 200hz, 90 db efficiency. Tube monblock Highs.The Adcoms are decent as I loaned out a pair years ago and put them side by side with a Krell Ksa250 driving B$w 801#3. Only thing the krell exceeded in was a less metallic.returned the adcoms in 2 hours, as I found out what i needed to know, In sane impedance loads the 565 Dittoed... the krell...

I am somewhat puzzled as to what point is being made here.  Also, Emotiva is in the title of the thread, but isn't even mentioned.  Perhaps my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

At any rate, if one doesn't have the budget for the boutique brands like Krell or Pass Labs, the current line up of Adcom amps are pretty good for the money.  They don't do mono blocks theese days.
These are radically different amps.  The Adcom is voiced very warm and, in my opinion, has a very messy sound in the mids/highs.  The bass is going to be warm and somewhat slow in my opinion.

If you are talking about the new Emotiva "Gen 3" XPA-1 amps, I would avoid them because they are thin sounding and do not have full bass.

If you are talking about Emotive "Gen 1" or "Gen 2", then these are actually pretty good amps.  They are very fast responding.  If you are going to use them for low end, they will have very tight and fast bass.  Just swap the fuses out with something better.  You can use cheap Isoclean gold fuses to really smooth out the sound and provide even better bass.

If your tube amp is warm and laid back, the Adcom might match the sonics a bit better.  I suppose it depends on what you're trying to achieve.