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XTZ EDGE A2-300 Review (amplifier)

Rottmannash

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Matias

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Thomas_A

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howard416

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The ICEpower modules typically aren't too great with distortion vs frequency, any chance we can get those, harmonic spectra, IMD, multi-tone, etc?

Thanks anyhow for the measurements!
 

Shure

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I have the xtz A2-300 and the audiophonics HPA-S400NC with the ncore nc400 modules.
To my ears the audiophonics amp is definitely the better amp, they are not even close.
But it is also x3 more expensive.
It would be interesting to compare it to the cheaper ncore mp modules.

I have a Yamaha RX-A3050 as preamp and Xtz Divine 100.49 for speakers.
 

EkNad

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Hi, Amir You forgot to turn the gain to full. It's not a fixed amp, as you can see. You must manually set gain to max if you're gonna stresstest it as a power amp.
I double checked with manual and Xtz. Youre measurements doesn't corolate to others.
 

Rottmannash

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Hi, Amir You forgot to turn the gain to full. It's not a fixed amp, as you can see. You must manually set gain to max if you're gonna stresstest it as a power amp.
I double checked with manual and Xtz. Youre measurements doesn't corolate to others.
He adjusted the gain for 29 dB which is what he measures all amps at.
 

EkNad

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Sorry on Pre or on gain level that we see is not full.

It's variable not fixed. I just talked to Xtz and they said it must be set to full.

Sitat: Amir -The position is as you see in the picture. And no, you can't get more power as it clips at this level already and protection circuit current limits. This happened at 1.2 volts so definitely no more juice to be had. It could be power supply limited.

Sitat End

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the measurements.

The gain is there to protect speakers, and for use with a phone or dac without volume control.

this Xtz unit measures abit under specs -dynamic , but not much.

Here is a dynamic measured cube..

post-17727-0-39756600-1542985373_thumb.jpg
 
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EkNad

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The 300 name is from B&O/Ices watt numbers from the Ice module, but I'm guessing that is one channel driven....
 
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Kegemusha

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Seems way to expensive for what it is.

This company is 60km from home, I can find these for some 300 2nd hand (costs some 350 new somtimes), but after seeing the meassurements I guess the nc122 will be a better choice, still is not a bad amp to me.

Looking at the excel list of amps sorted by meassurements, there amps for 52000$ or even the PS Audio Stellar doing little bit worst.

And I can see XTZ just released the Edge-A2-400.
 
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digitalfrost

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I run stereo subwoofers using 2 Tang Band W5-1138SMF per side. We can see from the impedance graph, they dip to ~6 ohms in the usable range (20hz-120hz). DCR is given as 3.4Ohms. Due to low impedance, I wired them in series when building them. However, I would like to have a bit more output, so I'm wondering if you think this amplifier would be safe/stable to run these chassis wired in parallel?

According to the datasheet minimum load is 2.5 ohms.
 

HermitageBass

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Is that really fair? There are tons of power amplifiers out there which measure even worse than this, but cost ten times as much.

On the flip side, are there really that many power amplifiers that are cheaper and better?
My thoughts exactly
 

guildenstern

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I recently acquired the XTZ A2-300 -- even after reading Amir's measurements. Early impression is that I like what I'm hearing.

It's being used in a desktop system to drive small Spendor monitors (which I've owned for at least a couple decades), generally at low volumes, fed by a Schiit Modi DAC thru the "passive preamp" outputs of a Magni amp (i.e., basically using the Magni as a volume control only). The XTZ replaces an old workhorse NAD integrated amp (which I was using as a power amp only by removing the pre-to-power jumpers and feeding the Magni output to the power amp inputs). Subjective impressions -- the XTZ sounds cleaner and clearer than the old NAD, much better defined in the lows and mid-bass, and generally non-fatiguing and very enjoyable.

Amir concluded his review by saying, " You have the data to decide for yourself." I for one am glad I decided to buy it! We'll see what the long term brings but for now I guess you might say that I'm enjoying it beyond (or despite) measure.
 

Rottmannash

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Guddu

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I had this amp running fine from about 2 years, but recently noticed hum specially when rca are connected on amp but not on another end.
Same is the case when it is plugged too.
Any help on what might be wrong?
 
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