I'm not surprised, it's an amp built to a low budget price point. I checked the specs, it has a power supply of only 360 VA, and they expect to get 300 total watts out of it? Most of their line up is built with this philosophy. Better than the amps in a receiver, but that's not saying much.
Emotiva XPA-200 review
Before I get to the review heres my little setup: Onkyo TX-SR707 receiver, PSB Stratus Gold towers, PSB Stratus C6i center, NHT SB3 as my surrounds, PSB (not sure of model, bought them so long ago) but PSB in ceiling for rear surrounds, PSB Subsonic 6i subwoofer, NAD 515 5 disc CD player, and now as of today the Emotiva XPA-200.
First impression when I took it out of the box was how nice the amp looks. Hooked everything up, turned it on, let Audyssey calculate everything once again, and the first song I played was time by Pink Floyd. Immediately noticed the sound much cleaner. Turned it up a little bit and noticed the mid's are no longer muddy, but accurate, and the highs are even crisper than before. I did however, notice that all though the lows were no longer lost and muddy, but there isn't much bass at all to be honest. I was listening in stereo with NO sub on.
Next song was Africa by toto. one of my favorite songs to crank. so I did just that. And all though it is much better than before, more powerful/cleaner sound, it leaves me wanting more. For maybe a 6 or 8 ohm speaker in this power range this amp would probably be fantastic. Because at lower volumes it sounds very good. But just doesn't have the balls for these speakers.
I'm also comparing this to my other setup upstairs, which is a big room with high ceilings, compared to the room downstairs, smaller, low ceilings, and owens corning walls, stratus golds hooked up to a Rotel 1095 and Rotel 1066 processor. THIS is plenty powerful, extremely strong bass, crystal clear mids and highs. So, the two setups compared to each other is like night and day. For the money, I think this amp is great, looks great, sounds great, cranked it for over an hour straight and its just barely warm to the touch, but for these speakers, it doesn't have the juice to power em.
First impression when I took it out of the box was how nice the amp looks. Hooked everything up, turned it on, let Audyssey calculate everything once again, and the first song I played was time by Pink Floyd. Immediately noticed the sound much cleaner. Turned it up a little bit and noticed the mid's are no longer muddy, but accurate, and the highs are even crisper than before. I did however, notice that all though the lows were no longer lost and muddy, but there isn't much bass at all to be honest. I was listening in stereo with NO sub on.
Next song was Africa by toto. one of my favorite songs to crank. so I did just that. And all though it is much better than before, more powerful/cleaner sound, it leaves me wanting more. For maybe a 6 or 8 ohm speaker in this power range this amp would probably be fantastic. Because at lower volumes it sounds very good. But just doesn't have the balls for these speakers.
I'm also comparing this to my other setup upstairs, which is a big room with high ceilings, compared to the room downstairs, smaller, low ceilings, and owens corning walls, stratus golds hooked up to a Rotel 1095 and Rotel 1066 processor. THIS is plenty powerful, extremely strong bass, crystal clear mids and highs. So, the two setups compared to each other is like night and day. For the money, I think this amp is great, looks great, sounds great, cranked it for over an hour straight and its just barely warm to the touch, but for these speakers, it doesn't have the juice to power em.