Hi folks, greetings from Berlin!
due to a pretty big upgrade in my hifi system I came to occupy myself with looking for a fitting power amp. The speakers are Nubert NuVero 170 which are said to be very power hungry with 85db/1W and mercilessly monitor like (they are). I was powering them with a Denon AVR6400 but I was thinking it will reach it's power and distortion limits pretty soon.
So first I got an expensive Class D amp but I always felt that the sound was way too agressive and sharp in the highs which made me omit Class D for the future.
Next was an Emotiva XPA-5 Gen3 which I got with a pretty good second hand deal. This one sounded better than the Class D, but I felt weird listening to music on it. It all seemed a little mushy, pressed together or to but it plainly, as if a compressor was enabled. Transients like kicks, snares and quick sounds were kind of swallowed. To confirm that I wasn't going crazy I plugged back into my "cheap" Denon 6400 and indeed the life came back into the music. Good dynamics and lot's of punch even at rather high volumes. Now I am confused. What is happening there? I've read that Emotiva are actually Class H, meaning that they continously switch between different power rails as needed in very fine steps. Maybe the Emotiva power management is a few milliseconds too slow so the power can't keep up with incoming transients. But wouldn't that cause clipping instead of compression? I tested different modules of the XPA-5 and switched back and forth in disbelief. So far the Denon AVR6400 with its small A/B monoblocks takes the win.
This also made me wonder: Is this amp impulse response also tested in here? Does this even need testing? What would be the value to measure the max power spike of an power amp?
Edit to make a few things clearer: The XPA was already sold, but I am considering to bite into the sour apple once and get the Benchmark ABH2 which seems to be the endgame for power amps. BUT it says that it is also Class H so I am very cautious right now about anything that isn't true AB.
due to a pretty big upgrade in my hifi system I came to occupy myself with looking for a fitting power amp. The speakers are Nubert NuVero 170 which are said to be very power hungry with 85db/1W and mercilessly monitor like (they are). I was powering them with a Denon AVR6400 but I was thinking it will reach it's power and distortion limits pretty soon.
So first I got an expensive Class D amp but I always felt that the sound was way too agressive and sharp in the highs which made me omit Class D for the future.
Next was an Emotiva XPA-5 Gen3 which I got with a pretty good second hand deal. This one sounded better than the Class D, but I felt weird listening to music on it. It all seemed a little mushy, pressed together or to but it plainly, as if a compressor was enabled. Transients like kicks, snares and quick sounds were kind of swallowed. To confirm that I wasn't going crazy I plugged back into my "cheap" Denon 6400 and indeed the life came back into the music. Good dynamics and lot's of punch even at rather high volumes. Now I am confused. What is happening there? I've read that Emotiva are actually Class H, meaning that they continously switch between different power rails as needed in very fine steps. Maybe the Emotiva power management is a few milliseconds too slow so the power can't keep up with incoming transients. But wouldn't that cause clipping instead of compression? I tested different modules of the XPA-5 and switched back and forth in disbelief. So far the Denon AVR6400 with its small A/B monoblocks takes the win.
This also made me wonder: Is this amp impulse response also tested in here? Does this even need testing? What would be the value to measure the max power spike of an power amp?
Edit to make a few things clearer: The XPA was already sold, but I am considering to bite into the sour apple once and get the Benchmark ABH2 which seems to be the endgame for power amps. BUT it says that it is also Class H so I am very cautious right now about anything that isn't true AB.
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