New setup: Emotive + Yamaha C-4

[BIGPERM]

What a crazy past 2 weeks. All the time planning out a new setup then waiting for each to arrive in the mail. Nervous about maybe making a mistake. Taking a gamble with $1000 and just hoping things would work out.

Well boys, I think I did just fine.

Started out with new speakers (Cerwin Vega xls-215's) that were underpowered with my Sansui 8700db (160wpc into 8ohms).

After lots of consideration, I went with a new Emotiva XPA-2 (2 chan amp) delivering a smooth 400wpc into 4 ohms (250 watts rms). $799 delivered direct from emotiva.

This is controlled with an older Yamaha C-4 preamp in great working condition. @ $200 from ebay after delivery costs.

Things were "weird" for the first 3 hours......was having to turn volume pretty high to get much output. Thought, "well maybe I just need time to get used to things". Big oops: realized I had the "mute" function turned on my new preamp.

Turned off the mute and the combo came out slugging. Ha ha. You have to laugh.

Got things running for 4-5 days now and still tweaking with tone controls vs tone defeat and with speaker placement, toe in etc.

All in all I am very pleased. I wont tell you I have reached the pinnacle of "AUDIO NIRVANA" but I will say I am very pleased. Its a fun system. I got better clarity, full body, and volume. Not too boomy and not too shrill. The music sounds great.

Listening to a full array of old and new rock and rock in between, country, electronic, folk, classical, "oldies", marching bands. All on vinyl. Even got "high tech" and plugged my laptop to the preamp and listened to a few cd's and mp3's.

All of it is very pleasing to the ears. But no final word yet. Still tweaking. Just thought I'd share.

[harley .guy07]

Well I am glad that you found the power you need to get your speakers running like they should. I have heard the XPA series Emo amps are power houses and at the price they sell for they are quite a good deal. I just bought a pair of there surround speakers and I am liking them very much and the quality was surprising for the price and they match well with my Dynaudio front channel speakers. I am not familiar with that particular Yamaha preamp but I sold Yamaha back in the 90's and they made a couple of preamps that were good for the money and they can be had for a real cheap price used. I think now you have more than enough power to get the most out of your Vega's and let us know how you like this setup after doing some breakin and listening for a while.

[Mr Peabody]

Sounds good, i bet the XPA does rock the Vega's.