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Emotiva PA-1 Review (Amplifier)

birkbott

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I have these and they are great. If you have a music studio they accept 1/4” balanced cables as well as XLR. Great for powering bookshelf speakers as studio monitors.
 

sejarzo

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Just sold my pair to a fellow over on usaudiomart in advance of downsizing. He sent an email to me today...

"Well I am bummed out after trying the little amps. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but they're not going to work in my system as they have way too much gain. I normally run my preamp at a setting of 50-60, with these amps I was down around 15. Just not going to work. ..."

I have asked him about his preamp gain, what power amp he had used previously, etc. and don't have a reply yet.

Emotiva spec'd these for 28 dB gain, which is what Amir measured, and most Class D amps have gain of 28-29 dB.

Any other users think that these had oddly high gain?
 

birkbott

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Just sold my pair to a fellow over on usaudiomart in advance of downsizing. He sent an email to me today...

"Well I am bummed out after trying the little amps. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but they're not going to work in my system as they have way too much gain. I normally run my preamp at a setting of 50-60, with these amps I was down around 15. Just not going to work. ..."

I have asked him about his preamp gain, what power amp he had used previously, etc. and don't have a reply yet.

Emotiva spec'd these for 28 dB gain, which is what Amir measured, and most Class D amps have gain of 28-29 dB.

Any other users think that these had oddly high gain?
I don’t get what the issue is?
 

sejarzo

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I don’t get what the issue is?
Seems as if the volume control on his preamp is now too touchy.

His estimates of the volume control setting as 15 now vs 50-60 in the past, assuming the knob travels from 7 o'clock to 5 o'clock as is typical, suggests to me that he can't set the knob above 8:30 or else the SPL is too high. I'd agree that's kind of a problem.

He must have a high gain preamp with balanced output and rather efficient speakers for power amps with 28dB gain to be too much.

I did include a comment in my reply to him about 28 dB gain being typical for class D amps now, but so far I've received no response as to his other gear, gains if he knows those, etc. I would be extremely surprised if he's driving the amps with an unbalanced output preamp, as the gain for the PA-1s in that mode should be only 22 dB.
 

sejarzo

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Now I get it. He replied and noted that he owns a Benchmark AHB2 that he runs in low gain (9 dB). All I can figure is that he was considering selling that and pocketing some cash.
 

Gambertuni

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Hi there,
This is my first post and I know nothing about audio, so I apologize if I say something which comes across as silly or a mere reiteration.
I found a nice offer on an Emotiva pa-1 and I am wondering if it may be possible (or worth it) to connect my Atom dac and amp 2 (rca output) to the Emotiva PA-1 (balanced input) without a quality loss or technical issues?

Thanks a lot in advance!
 

Sal1950

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Hi there,
This is my first post and I know nothing about audio, so I apologize if I say something which comes across as silly or a mere reiteration.
I found a nice offer on an Emotiva pa-1 and I am wondering if it may be possible (or worth it) to connect my Atom dac and amp 2 (rca output) to the Emotiva PA-1 (balanced input) without a quality loss or technical issues?

Thanks a lot in advance!
Welcome to Audio Science Review !!!
So if I read you correctly, you want to use your Amp2 for it's preamp function and drive the Emo power amp with it.
All you need are RCA to XLR balanced cables.
I see no reason why that shouldn't get you a very nice transparent sounding system.

PS, you do realize this is a monoblock amp and you'll need 2?
 

Gambertuni

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Welcome to Audio Science Review !!!
So if I read you correctly, you want to use your Amp2 for it's preamp function and drive the Emo power amp with it.
All you need are RCA to XLR balanced cables.
I see no reason why that shouldn't get you a very nice transparent sounding system.

PS, you do realize this is a monoblock amp and you'll need 2?
oh I didn't know that, thank you so much!
and yes, the idea is to go Atom Dac 2 to Atom Amp 2 to Emotiva PA1 to Speakers (still habe to figure out those)
My other amp option is Cambridge Topaz SR20 (also 200€) bur couldn't find reviews on that ine
Thank you so much
 

Sal1950

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oh I didn't know that, thank you so much!
and yes, the idea is to go Atom Dac 2 to Atom Amp 2 to Emotiva PA1 to Speakers (still habe to figure out those)
My other amp option is Cambridge Topaz SR20 (also 200€) bur couldn't find reviews on that ine
Thank you so much
Your very welcome.
Our members here are happy to help whenever possible.
Cheers
 

Gambertuni

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Has anyone by any chance paired the Emotiva PA-1 with the Cambridge Audio SX80 floor speakers?
I found a nice offer on those and wonder if they could pair properly. Hereby some tech specs:

SX80 Floorstanding speakers
Impedance 8 Ohms
Sensitivity 87 dB
Frequency Response 40Hz-20Khz
Recommended amp power 10-100W

EMotiva Stealth PA-1
Output power:
140 watts RMS into 8 Ohms at 1 kHz at 1% THD
135 watts RMS into 8 Ohms at 0.1% THD
300 watts RMS into 4 Ohms at 1 Khz at 1% THD
270 watts RMS into 4 Ohms at 0.1% THD
450 watts RMS into 2.7 Ohms at 1 kHz at 1% THD

Input impedance: 47k Ohms (balanced)

Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +/- 1 dB (worst case; 4 Ohm load).
Damping factor: >500

I'll be really grateful for any piece of information :)
Thanks a lot!
 

Sal1950

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Has anyone by any chance paired the Emotiva PA-1 with the Cambridge Audio SX80 floor speakers?
I found a nice offer on those and wonder if they could pair properly. Hereby some tech specs:

SX80 Floorstanding speakers
Impedance 8 Ohms
Sensitivity 87 dB
Frequency Response 40Hz-20Khz
Recommended amp power 10-100W

EMotiva Stealth PA-1
Output power:
140 watts RMS into 8 Ohms at 1 kHz at 1% THD
135 watts RMS into 8 Ohms at 0.1% THD
300 watts RMS into 4 Ohms at 1 Khz at 1% THD
270 watts RMS into 4 Ohms at 0.1% THD
450 watts RMS into 2.7 Ohms at 1 kHz at 1% THD

Input impedance: 47k Ohms (balanced)

Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +/- 1 dB (worst case; 4 Ohm load).
Damping factor: >500

I'll be really grateful for any piece of information :)
Thanks a lot!
Going by the specs, it should be fine, but as I told you in another post the Emo is a monoblock amp, it will only play one
channel. You need 2 for stereo.
 

Gambertuni

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Going by the specs, it should be fine, but as I told you in another post the Emo is a monoblock amp, it will only play one
channel. You need 2 for stereo.
Yes of course, I am buying 2 of them.
Thanks a lot!
 

Sal1950

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Yes of course, I am buying 2 of them.
Thanks a lot!
Ah, great.
I'll only mention that the speakers have a somewhat low sensitivity at 87db so the amps will be working a bit hard to deliver
loud volume levels. A thought going forward someday would be to add a good subwoofer since the speakers don't have low bass
capability anyway. A crossover point around 80hz would then relieve the Emo amp of a lot of it's power requirements throughout
the rest of the range. A win, win, win improvement when finances allow.
Otherwise I believe you should be pleased with this combo.
Cheers.
 
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