Emotiva XPA-3 vs Adcom GFA 585

[Toolfan66]

Well I finally got a new amp Adcom GFA 585, and I have been putting it up against the Emotiva XPA3 in 2 channel mode the last couple of days.

This is what i was running,

Pioneer SC-07
IC's Audioquest Diamond Backs
I used 2 type of speaker cables, The MIT-2's, and Audioquest Type 4's on both amps.
and I used my RTiA9's with and without Subs

Keep in mind these are the only 2 amps i have ever had to do something like this.

Now that i have had the chance to put something up against the Emotiva, this is what i find.

With the Adcom I find the depth of the music much better, the imagery is richer, and the bass is much deeper with and without the subs on the A9's. also the brightness of the A9's seemed to disappear, much better on the ears.
I can also say I liked the MIT-2's with the Adcom the best. AQ type 4's are great as well. but I like the MIT's better.

With the Emotiva as i do like this amp, so I don't want to turn this into any flame war with the Emo. I find this amp to be best with the HT setup comparing this to the Adcom. The XPA-3 is much brighter then the 585. I guess i never noticed it before as I had nothing to put to the test. The bass is not as tight as with the Adcom. that was my first finding I noticed this right out of the gate. and the depth and imagery seemed to lack as well.

With all of this said I can't wait to put this Adcom 585 with my SDA 1.2's.
Very excited about this combo.;) should be up and running soon.

I am not sure if this is a fair test with the Emotiva but I have to say I would take the 585 over it.

Like I said i don't want this to be a Emotiva flame war, I just wanted to post my findings. also I wanted to give it a couple of days of Listening.

I also pushed both amps to -16 db with the receiver. I also used Michael Jackson's Off the Wall as my Test CD. I know but this CD has great SQ, and the bass is killer.

I am not the best at doing a reveiw, so this is what you get.

Larry.

[leroyjr1]

Nice review. Another ADCOM fan. Did you get a pre amp yet for your Adcom 585 /1.2tl setup?

[Kex]

Interesting review and comments. Did you test both amplifiers in two channel mode only, or were the remaining, non-amplified channels still being powered by the Pioneer?

XPA-3 product page here: http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm
GFA-585 product manual here: http://www.adcom.com/data/manuals/gfa585manual.pdf

The GFA-585 is a legacy product, and no product page is provided that I could find, so the manual is in PDF form. The detailed specifications are on the last page (P.12)

[Toolfan66]

Two channel mode only.

[cnh]

Interesting review Larry,

I have yet to actually hear an Emotiva, but I've certainly heard a number of Adcoms and own one that I'll be running with some SDA-2Bs when I get back from Britain in a week.

cnh

[Toolfan66]

Nice review. Another ADCOM fan. Did you get a pre amp yet for your Adcom 585 /1.2tl setup?

Not yet still looking. Can't wait.

[sandworms]

thanx for the input tool, i've been debating a switch in amps, somehow i feel something is missing in my 2ch listening

[Toolfan66]

Interesting review Larry,

I have yet to actually hear an Emotiva, but I've certainly heard a number of Adcoms and own one that I'll be running with some SDA-2Bs when I get back from Britain in a week.

cnh

I will be bringing the Adcom up to the bedroom and put it with my 2B's this week. This Adcom is awesome. You will love the 2B's.

Thanks Man,

Larry.

[heiney9]

Nice review. Another ADCOM fan. Did you get a pre amp yet for your Adcom 585 /1.2tl setup?

Be sure to check in the 585 is common ground when using with SDA's. I honestly can't remember off the top of my head. I don't believe it;'s common ground

The 585 is a great amp.......I hate to say it but some of us that have been thru some gear have sort of been saying this all along. With Emo you get what you pay for a nice, solid HT amp that's a step above receiver. Nothing more, nothing less.

Nice review and I'm NOT trying to bash Emo..........facts are facts.

H9

[apphd]

Nice write up Larry. I think you did a good job. I will be trying my best at this as well with the ERC making its rounds. Technical writing is not one of my strong points.

[F1nut]

It's all in your head.....the results don't mean a thing unless you conducted a double blind A/B test while standing on your head reading Roger Russell's article on wire gauge. Speaking of which, God forbid you used wires with network boxes........did they even have those when RR wrote that BS!?! Oh well, it doesn't matter as the Flat Earth Society types are deaf to begin with.

Long live Emo, the King of..........well, something I'm sure.

[Montoya]

That adcom is a great amp. The xpa-3 is a solid home theater amp and the xpa-2 is suppose to be the two channel amp. I compared my xpa-5 to a rotel and dual modded carver m 1.0t and the xpa-5 fell short for two channel listening the carver combo beat them for rock music but rotel was best all around. I'm curious how the xpa-2 will fair against other mid level stereo amps being this is the one audioholics reviewed.

[comfortablycurt]

Nice review Larry. It's good to see Emo actually get compared to a different amp on here. Your thoughts on it seem to concur with a lot of other people too...great for HT, but only so-so for 2 channel. In all fairness, I've always heard that the XPA-2 is a lot better amp than the XPA-3 as far as 2 channel goes.

I definitely agree with your findings in regards to the Adcom. I recently picked up a GFA-545, and I couldn't be happier with it. I had similar results with my RTi8's, it really helped tame the brightness a lot. The bass on the 8's really surprised me with the Adcom too. With the 8's running off of my Onk', it wasn't really anything to write home about. It's a lot deeper and stronger now, a lot punchier in the upper bass regions, and a lot tighter down low.

The 8's still don't sound anywhere near as good as the 7A's though.;)

[Dawgfish]

I am not trying to be contrarying, just bringing this up to say that I guess it's a ear of the beholder, YMMV thing. I've compared my XPA-3 to my Adcom GFA-555 and 545, Monster Power MPA-3250, and Carver TMF-35 and I thought the XPA-3 compared favorably to all of them. To me the XPA-3 created the deepest and widest soundstage of all of the above mentioned amps. It also created most and most detailed bass. The XPA-3 is pretty detailed in highs, but I would't call it bright for my tastes. The highs are definitely more noticable, especially compared to the Carver. I am a drummer, so I like to here a lot of detail in my highs to here subtle nuainces of ride cymbals, hi-hats, attack in crashes, splashes, etc. I probably put a little more emphasis on highs than most listeners so that probably explains my preferences. Again i'm not trying to disagree at all. Diffferent people have different tastes and here things differently (not to mention all of the variables from differences in equipment, set-up, room acoustics, etc.). I am just saying my results with my equipment, set-up, and my ears was different and I actually have compared the XPA-3 to different stuff on a regular basis. That's why it's important for perspective buyers to here the products for themselves, you just never know how it will sound to you.

Steve

[Toolfan66]

I am not trying to be contrarying, just bringing this up to say that I guess it's a ear of the beholder, YMMV thing. I've compared my XPA-3 to my Adcom GFA-555 and 545, Monster Power MPA-3250, and Carver TMF-35 and I thought the XPA-3 compared favorably to all of them. To me the XPA-3 created the deepest and widest soundstage of all of the above mentioned amps. It also created most and most detailed bass. The XPA-3 is pretty detailed in highs, but I would't call it bright for my tastes. The highs are definitely more noticable, especially compared to the Carver. I am a drummer, so I like to here a lot of detail in my highs to here subtle nuainces of ride cymbals, hi-hats, attack in crashes, splashes, etc. I probably put a little more emphasis on highs than most listeners so that probably explains my preferences. Again i'm not trying to disagree at all. Diffferent people have different tastes and here things differently (not to mention all of the variables from differences in equipment, set-up, room acoustics, etc.). I am just saying my results with my equipment, set-up, and my ears was different and I actually have compared the XPA-3 to different stuff on a regular basis. That's why it's important for perspective buyers to here the products for themselves, you just never know how it will sound to you.

Steve

I agree with you 100%, like i said not sure if this is a fair comparison or not, but i found the 585 to do serious justice for my A9's. it filled the room giving me more 3D effect and clarity.

[Dawgfish]

It sounds like you got a keeper in the 585. I have yet to here one. I'm going to have to lookout for one of those. I really enjoy my 545 and 555, especially considering what I paid for them. My 555 has to be over 20 years old and it still runs strong. There's a lot to be said for that. I cant' wait to here how that sounds with your SDAs. Hopefully you'll report back to us on that. Cheers.

Steve

[apphd]

WOW!! 15 post involving an Emo and it all was good audio discussions of products and taste. Well almost all anyway;) Thought this is what CP is all about, and why we join up and keep coming back.:)

[F1nut]

Tag says "f1's fear of science".......you obviously don't know me, but I know you.

[mdoug33]

the question is, has anyone compared the xpa2 channel emo amp yet. greaty discussion

[megasat16]

the question is, has anyone compared the xpa2 channel emo amp yet. greaty discussion

I think this is a good review given by the Original Poster in Post # 1. It wasn't a question as I see it.

[mdoug33]

I agree, I only asked because everyone keeps saying that the Xpa2 is supposed to be so much better for 2 channel in this thread vs the xpa3 so i was curious if it existed somewhere

[mdoug33]

"greaty discussion" Sorry for the bad grammer

[slowpolky]

whats the price diff on these babys?

[Toolfan66]

"greaty discussion" Sorry for the bad grammer

And your 26 post's to sell your goods.

[heiney9]

whats the price diff on these babys?

The 585 was new in 1988 retail was around $1K. Used they sell for around $500.

Not sure on the Emo never looked it up.........no need to.

I doubt very much the XPA 2 would be that much different than the XPA 3 despite what Emo states about it being better for 2 ch.

H9

[Kex]

... Not sure on the Emo never looked it up.........no need to.

I doubt very much the XPA 2 would be that much different than the XPA 3 despite what Emo states about it being better for 2 ch. ...

Oh well, just out of curiousity, I did look it up ...

XPA-2: $800 + $25 shipping, http://emotiva.com/xpa2.shtm.

It's been called a lot of things. A beast. A monster. A gorilla. An abominable snowman on steroids. It's been called names that can't be repeated in this article...and they're all compliments.

They're compliments from serious audiophiles in the throes of elation over the discovery of the XPA-2, our new high power 2 channel amplifier. These are people looking for power, performance and detail. They found what they were looking for in the XPA-2, at a fraction of the price they expected.

Following their discoveries, many lapsed into name-calling, expletives, shouting, wild gesturing...or worse. It makes us proud. ...

XPA-3: $600 + $25 shipping, http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm.

The specifications are very similar, but other than 50w/ch extra, the XPA-2 has:

- A bigger transformer: 1,200VA vs. 850VA.
- More secondary capacitance: 60,000uF vs. 52,000uF
- More "lead": 75lbs vs. 57lbs.

The other specifications are strictly identical, to the last letter and digit from what I can see, but the XPA-2 doubles its output at 4 ohms, whereas the XPA-3 adds 50% when rated at 4 ohms ... whatever any of that might mean ... I prefer what my ears tell me to reading a bunch of specifications, but then I'm preaching to the choir on that aspect where H9 is concerned.

Edit: actually, the XPA-5 may be the best deal of them all, at $800 + $25 shipping and very similar specifications to the XPA-2. Identical transformer and capacitance ratings, but higher output in two channel mode with 275w/ch @ 8 ohms, for those that live by numbers.

[ben62670]

My 565's are driving 10 MW's at 2 ohms right now without a hiccup. They measure 1.6ohms DCR. The 565's can handle dips to 1 ohm. Adcom rates them at 850wpc clean. The 585 is the same design, but will not appreciate 4ohms dips as much. If you can find a completely redone 585 for $500 grab it.

[hearingimpared]

My 565's are driving 10 MW's at 2 ohms right now without a hiccup. They measure 1.6ohms DCR. The 565's can handle dips to 1 ohm. Adcom rates them at 850wpc clean. The 585 is the same design, but will not appreciate 4ohms dips as much. If you can find a completely redone 585 for $500 grab it.

Ben is the 585 common ground?

[speakergeek]

Adcoms are nice. Should have gotten an XPA-5!

[speakergeek]

The XPA-5 rocks! Very solid amp. Especially in 3ch mode.