Charles' Little 2-ch Hi-Fi System...

[Chops]

I did a few more things recently... Sold the Music Hall mmf-7.3 turntable and Schiit Mani to my oldest brother, drove 130 miles round trip to pick up an absolutely mint Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amplifier, installed taller shelf poles and cross braces for my Vulcan rack to make room for that huge amp, and removed all of the cabling coming from and going to the stack of cassette decks in the back of the room for now.

 

[Chops]

Removed those trim pieces on either side of the face. I think it looks much better.

 

[Chops]

On Christmas Eve, one of my brothers came over with his Emotiva XPA DR-2 amp for me to try out in my system for a while, being able to directly compare it to my Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2. He just purchased an integrated tube amp and also just ordered a Doge Audio tube preamp that he's waiting on to be built. So in the meantime, he's letting me run the DR-2 in my system. Plus this is a comparison I wanted to do anyway, just for fun.

And with either amp in the system, my kitties still enjoy hanging out in here chilling to old jazz, classical and old rock. Well, any music really. LOL

 

[Chops]

 

[Chops]

Playing around with some "new" NOS tubes that just showed up, as well as the 6SN7 tube adapters to use them in the Freya+...

Raytheon/Baldwin 12AU7's on the left, GE 6CG7 on the right. I also have a pair of GE 6FQ7's, which are identical to the 6CG7, but the 6CG7 utilizes a shield between the two plates.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

you change equipment like a girl changes shoes!
what is your impressions of the emotiva amps, considering one for myself
i have enjoyed your travels

 

[Chops]

you change equipment like a girl changes shoes!
what is your impressions of the emotiva amps, considering one for myself
i have enjoyed your travels

You think I'm bad, you should see how my brother goes through gear, especially speakers.

These Emotive amps are actually quite impressive. Sure, they're not Mark Levinson or Gryphon Audio amps, but they offer plenty of solid, clean power, great bass punch and texture, the older Gen 2 that I have has a little fuller, natural sounding midrange, and airy, detailed and smooth treble. Really good image scale and depth, and a nice wide and deep sound stage.

I honesty never thought I'd like them as much as I do, but they really are pretty darn good. I don't plan on changing it out anytime soon.

 

[Chops]

6FQ7's now in place along with the 6CG7's...

 

[Mikem53]

@Chops .. I’m a bit dizzy after Reading all your changes .. lol.. Takes me back when I would have stuff being delivered at the front door as other components were leaving out the back door.. I’ve slowed down somewhat with age..
I had a pair of Aegir monos and Freya + not too long ago. I must have missed your post as to why you moved on from the Aegir monos ?
Nice setup ! You’ve done much in a short time..

 

[Chops]

@Chops .. I’m a bit dizzy after Reading all your changes .. lol.. Takes me back when I would have stuff being delivered at the front door as other components were leaving out the back door.. I’ve slowed down somewhat with age..
I had a pair of Aegir monos and Freya + not too long ago. I must have missed your post as to why you moved on from the Aegir monos ?
Nice setup ! You’ve done much in a short time..

I sold the Aegir amps and went with the Emotiva because of the Martin Logan SL3's. At lower than moderate levels, the SL3's would make the Aegir amps shut down into protect mode. I was a bit "iffy" going with an Emotiva amp, but the more I read actual users reviews of them compared to other amps, I decided that the XPA 2 Gen 2 was the best choice as far as sound signature goes, and the fact that it uses a traditional heavy power supply, and has 500 watts on tap per channel at 4 ohms.

Surprisingly, even at "normal" volume levels, this amp sounds better than the Aegir amps did, and those were darn good sounding amps. The Emotiva however, has a wider and deeper sound stage, more heft from the lower midrange on down, more bass detail, and a sweeter top end. And with this amps, I can play the SL3's as loud as I want, and the amp doesn't break a sweat. It stays composed, and the sound is totally effortless and stress free sounding. I have zero complaints with this amp whatsoever. And the thing is built like an absolute tank.

 

[Mikem53]

@Chops , I tried a Single Aegir in stereo mode with my speakers. It sounded MUCH better than running them in mono. Everything was more defined and “intimate” sounding. It didn’t have the oomph or weight like the monos did.. but bridged mode just sucked all the goodness from these amps.
I realize that it wouldn’t have worked that way for you, but I was surprised at how much better a single
Aegir sounded in comparison to bridged mono mode..

 

[Chops]

Did a thing today... Been itching for a while for some DIY action, and I've had these sitting at the other house for a few years now doing nothing. Figured I'd get them fired back up and actually finish them off properly.

Here's the quick and dirty. And please excuse the mess at the moment in the room. There's been a lot going on in this room today. LOL

The dbx Driverack Venu 360 still had all of the crossover and level settings, as well as the old EQ settings for the old room. Just ran the "Auto EQ". Sounding better than I imagined it would, especially since they just replaced the Martin Logan's. In fact, these are doing extremely good right now.

The little silver amps are the Nuprime STA 9's that I used to own and sold to one of my brothers a while back. The Emotiva is powering the Audio Nirvana fullrange drivers, the top STA 9 is powering the Eminence woofers, the bottom STA 9 is only there to send a signal to the JL subs.

More to come!

 

[treitz3]

Is "congestion" on your mind?

I.E. confusion of frequencies, clarity within heavy passages, definition of instruments? No matter what you do, how you change the location of the speakers, etc an issue? If so, move backwards and keep trying.

Tom

 

[Chops]

What?...

 

[treitz3]

Just listen.

Tom

 

[Chops]

 

[Chops]

Been tweaking speaker positioning more, adjusting levels, crossover points and such. Really getting these dialed in. The result of all that work was that the AutoEQ in the dbx Venu 360 had to implement a lot less in order to make corrections.

Afterwards, I played my reference songs from Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight, I Don't Care Anymore, and Genesis - Mama. Songs/albums that I have lived and breathed for the past 30+ years. Also Carley Simon -Coming Around Again and Sting - Why Should I Cry For You and When The Angels Fall.


Especially while playing the Phil Collins and Genesis tracks, tonight was the first time in a very long time that my system made me get chills down my spine and actually start laughing to myself because how damn good it sounded! The last time this happened was when I was running HUGE open baffles back in the early 2000's with Usher Audio 15" drivers and Altec Voice Of The Theater 511B horns and 908-8b drivers. And this system is more refined than that system was, and much smaller by comparison!


Sheer dynamic swing, purely effortless slam, in-the-room vocals and drums, stage width and depth galore! And the naturalness and realistic presentation of it all... And this is STILL with the flimsy temp baffles and only one bass driver per side. I still have six more of these Eminence Acoustinator N2012 drivers to install (three per channel).


This is the RTA on the dbx Venu 360 after all the tweaking and running AutoEQ again, now with a lot less processing needed.

 

[Chops]

Been at it again... Simplified the system, changed speakers again, and purchased a Sony Blu-ray player...

 

[Mikem53]

Been at it again... Simplified the system, changed speakers again, and purchased a Sony Blu-ray player...

My friend is setting up a second system with the 8000 speakers.. How are you liking them so far..
I updated my friends Bifrost with the unison USB interface.. Nice improvement..

 

[Chops]

My friend is setting up a second system with the 8000 speakers.. How are you liking them so far..
I updated my friends Bifrost with the unison USB interface.. Nice improvement..

I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how good these 8000F's sound to be honest. Luckily they don't have that traditional "Klipsch sound". They're just clean and dynamic with plenty of bass depth and punch, open and spacious mids, and clean, refined highs.

No horn honk or harshness at all.