CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**kal** · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:05 am Post subject:

From what I've read, Emotiva is extremely hard to beat for the price/performance ratio you're getting. I always recommend the online only companies like Emotiva and Outlaw Audio (their amps are OEM'ed ATI's mostly which are very good). For a price of a good receiver you can get extremely good separates.

You're not going to get anything earth-shatteringly "audiophile" quality but you're getting into the 95%+ performance area for about 1/20th the price.

The only thing that scares me about Emotiva is the price. It's frankly, too damned low for what it supposedly does and the quality of the parts they put in. I kept looking and looking for the 'catch', but there doesn't seem to be any which basically means: Everyone else is overpricing like crazy.

I was getting ready to spend a somewhat silly amount of money on Anthem high end equipment (D2 preamp & P5/P2 amps) after hearing and reading nothing but good things about them... kept doing my research and came across Emotiva and their new amps (MPS-2) & preamps coming out this year and based on some of the reviews of their current products I decided to wait and see. For the price I'd spend on Anthem I could buy Emotiva equipment instead and get a high end scaler (Crystalio or Radiance) and still have money left over! Crazy.

Kal

Meese · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 48 Location: Minnesota

What do you figure I could sell a working Crown Macro Reference "E Revision" for? Anyone looking to buy?

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

A nice read ...

http://www.emotiva.com/aa2008-03.pdf

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:15 am Post subject:

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I picked up some Behringer a500's from Musician's friend for $160 a piece refurbed. They are a step down from the Crown's I am sure but they provide a hell of a lot more power than my H/K 325. They have 0 fans and have RCA connections so no problems with level matching when converting the RCA's to XLR's.

They are a little plasticy but again have a lot of power, sound great to me, and no fans. Many imitators have made a similar amp. Might want to give it a look as well.

At this point I am using one bridged for my center and another one powering both mains. I want to get one more to bridge for the front stage and have 500W for each main and center.

Headroom is nice...

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

ecrabb · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject:

Dave,

According to this post:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17004

The A500's measured out at 120w w/1 channel driven into 8-ohms. That's probably not much better than a really good AVR, except during loud action sequences with all channels running.

I kept going back and forth between the A500 and the Crown XLS202's. I ended up going with the Crowns because they're 300w into 4 ohms (instead of 230), much heavier duty (all steel, no plastic), and have a 3-year instead of a 1-year warranty. With the rebate Crown was doing in the fall, they ended up costing me about $70 more than the A500s. Crown's running the rebate again, too. I had also read about the 'plasticy-ness' of the Behringer and about not-so-great build quality and decided on the Crowns.

I LOVE the sound of the Crowns - it really improved the sound of my system. MAJOR improvement, in fact. But, as it turns out, one of the amps needs to go back to Crown because it has a power supply issue - I get a turn-off thump. Came out of the box that way. The fans are also WAY too loud, which isn't a big deal - most guys just snip the fan wire since they see such light duty in our HTs compared to what they were designed for. But, now I don't want to mod them because it will certainly void the warranty and who knows if I'll have another issue - maybe the Crowns aren't as good as they used to be, either.

Now, I'm thinking about selling the Crowns (after I get the one repaired) and using it along with the funds from selling my current AVR to upgrade to a new AVR with HDMI and advanced audio. Then, start saving for another amp again. Arrgghhhh.... This DAMN hobby.

SC

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX