Odyssey kismet - emotiva xpa1 1000w ?


Have had 3 weeks with the kismet monos, please help me  with how a 200W mono pair can sound better, and not get hot, and seem relaxed and clearer than a 1000W pair of monoblocks??

  Driving at about 3.6- 4.9:ohm load. 
These 200W odyssey maps, seem to keep up with everything, faster, less fatiguing, and still overpower the 1000W amps,

 please, explain, so I understand the theory how 200W can sound better!and drive my speakers better than maps with 5X the power.

thanks
128x128arcticdeth
Heat is always usually a byproduct of how much Class A bias the amp output board has.  If you are references the older generation Emotiva (Such as XPA-1 Gen 2), then the bias is a bit high (maybe 8-10 watts into Class A).  I suspect the Odyssey is biased very low, probably less than 1 watt, so there isn't a lot of heat generated unless you push the amp really hard.

Also, the Emotiva amps do have a tendancy to sound bright, even with the older generation.  The new Gen 3 amps do sound bright and do not have a natural sound, plus they have hollow sounding bass because of switching power supply.  The Gen 3 amps also do not really get hot.

The older Gen 1 or Gen 2 amps have a full linear power supply.  I think you are talking about these because they can get a little bit hot.  They also are bright sounding stock, but this can be fixed with a fuse upgrade.  The bass on these older amps are very strong and powerful.

The Odyssey amps are very simple amp circuits with a small amount of components and Klaus uses very high quality components (capacitors, etc.).  The Emotiva line uses the cheapest caps/resistors/wiring it can obtain with a generally good design to get a "good for the money" result.  It works in general, but the latest Gen 3 amps are more compromised than the older ones because of that dang switching power supply.
It's not about the power, beyond a certain point.  You need enough power to drive your speakers to the level you want without the amp clipping, but beyond that, it's more about the quality of the parts, the amount of current that the amp can deliver, how well it deals with EMI, etc..  If you needed 1,000 watts, then the 200wpc amp would not sound nearly as good. However, you're probably using well below the 200 watts available, so it comes down to the overall quality of the design. Odyssey is known for making very well regarded amplifiers.
  
No one?

 200W monos maybe 370W @4 Ohm, blow away a pair of 1000W monos.

emos play louder, and have high gain, tweeters have hiss.

the Odyssey amps are sublime, relaxed sound,  bass is deep, VERY DEEP, the BIC speakers sound amazing, even better than with the Carver sunfire 600 Sig. not talking about volume, but, low to medium volume tunes, the Kismets, smash the emo and Sunfire amps. 
Carver is 600/1200/2400W 
and the odyssey kismet at a measley 200W @8 Ohm / maybe 350-380W WPC AT 4 Ohms. , sounds deeper, cleaner, more robust.  
Someone put this to words so I get it.
  How does an amp with low watts outperform, an amp w 3 X the power”?

cheers
Totally blown away!  My D-9 modded pair are about 3 - 3.6 at th slowest load.
    The Kismets kick em in the pants!
   Before the upgrade, I purchased a used stratos pair many years ago, they basically sat for a few years unused.
 One day I hooked them up, powered on, let sit for a couple weeks.
 They had old capacitors, small ones, red board maybe?
    These kismet AMPS  upgraded are absolutely IN THE WOW FACTOR!

these,amps are amazing.
 Crystal, deep bass, midrange is just so,........crunchy and fluid w Moore, schenker, travers, v Moore, etc etc

 I love these amps!
l
Klaus is known for putting high capacitance in his amps. I think your Kismets have 180,000 AuF  & deliver >70a current. The Kismets come with the Ultra Fast Sympionic Line caps.  He also does not use a SMPS like  the Emotiva. I ran into the same thing trying a high wattage Class D to drive my Maggies and the Odyssey was in another league with half the power.  There are some real electrical engineer/design folks here ( I am not that knowledgeable) who can offer some better explanations.  I spoke with Klaus about this one time and he explained that the higher watt competitors have to use the smps because the heat would be too high for a 1000 watt amp and if the capacitance isn't there, I would notice a fall off during dynamic passages.