Emotiva XSP-1 Pre-amp

Thanks for all the nice opinions. I am still expecting more reviews before I make up my decision.

The preamp is starting to open up. The thin sound quality is now sounding much fuller. The soundstage has opened up. The bass, while still not the equal to my YS Audio Balanced A2SE, has improved nicely. It's sounding much less like a solid state preamp and becoming very enjoyable. I also changed my CD player which has helped to improve the sound. My first report was when the preamp had about three hours on it. Now it has about 25. I still don't care for the looks of it. Very cheap looking. And it actually looks heavier than it is.

I ended up selling this preamp. The YS Audio Balanced A2SE is a far better preamp than the Emotiva XSP-1. The McIntosh MCD201 CD player made the Emotiva sound better, but I just couldn't get passed the Emotivas' dry two-dimensional sterile sound. Very poor customer service too.

I own the UMC-200 and find it extremely high quality sound. The DAC's are superb even comparing to the Oppo 105 DAC's. besides the qwercky menus I would say this is topnotch. I think people should look out for the XMC-1 coming. If it surpasses the UMC-200 it will be huge. Especially If including the TACT calibration and better processing.

You mean the XMC that was promised last June? It's still not released, and after re-promising it before the end of 2012(without room correction which would come separately later) Emotiva has been silent on a release date. I wouldn't go near it until it's been in owner's hands for at least a couple of months.

Too many horror stories from the UMC.