Well, my speakers have shipped and will be here on Wednesday. I am taking the afternoon off so I can be at home for delivery. My son will help me with the unpacking etc.
Thank you David and Dina.
Donald
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Well, my speakers have shipped and will be here on Wednesday. I am taking the afternoon off so I can be at home for delivery. My son will help me with the unpacking etc.
Thank you David and Dina.
Donald
What is really crazy is that the gain across the system seems to be perfectly matched to Ascend speakers. I've seen a lot of people have some weird power and noise issues with Emotiva gear, but mine has matched so perfectly it's been awesome. The noise floor is almost completely inaudible and the dynamics and level of clarity are jaw dropping. I rarely leave my theater now. My dogs huddle against the theater door when I'm gone. I haven't even treated my room or blacked out the walls yet!
Both companies offer world class components and performance at rock bottom prices by having a company structure that makes sense and pouring the majority of their resources into research and manufacturing. I also love how they both have a very simple, understated, yet elegant and beautiful design. It keeps the costs down while maximizing performance, utilizing what they have to make it look beautiful. It's the exact kind of philosophy that I love.
-Alex
PS4/Nvidia Shield --> Emotiva XMC-1 --> Emotiva XPA-5 --> Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers and Horizon Center w/ RAAL tweeters (L/C/R), HTM-200 SE (Surrounds), 2x Rythmik F12 subwoofers
Off topic a bit, but I've seen Emotiva discussed a lot here - what are the speaker out connectors on the XMC-1? It looks like XLR? How do you connect those to the +/- terminals on speakers?
-Alex
PS4/Nvidia Shield --> Emotiva XMC-1 --> Emotiva XPA-5 --> Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers and Horizon Center w/ RAAL tweeters (L/C/R), HTM-200 SE (Surrounds), 2x Rythmik F12 subwoofers
Ahh ok I see, I've always just had a single integrated AVR that does everything - that looks sweet though, maybe one day!
Interesting I have never had any gain or noise problems with them but the XMC and SA-250 are the first units I have bought from them. The SA-250 has a high and low gain switch (maybe they put it on to help with gain issues from the past) and the combo is dead silent and very dynamic.
MacMini -> Emotiva XMC-1 -> Emotiva SA-250 -> RAAL Towers / SVS SB13-U
Speakers arrived today and they look very good (Cherry). After hooking them up to my system I noticed that one of the towers sounded not as bright or clear then the other. They also sounded "small". I also had a very hard time to find the sweet spot which is still not right. I then reversed the towers location to see if the problem would follow the speakers and it did. Before I could do more testing I was interrupted by family matter. Will run some test tones through them tomorrow and if I can't solve the problem will give David a call. I do have to say that from what I heard through the "brighter" speaker was very very nice. I played some tracks that where very bad recordings and alway sounded bad but this time they actually sounded very good. I could not believe it as everyone seems to say the opposite with the Raal towers. I know the speakers get tested before shipping so I hope its just a loose connection or my hearing.
Sounds like your source? Or maybe a room mode? Idk, these guys know more than I do.
I would like to comment on you noticing that on "poorer" recordings your Towers make them sound better. When I went from my polk towers I had in college to my interim CBM-170's (I will buy the Towers w/ RAAL this fall), I played some older Windham Hill recordings that sounded pretty rough on my old Polks. When I listen to "Conferring with the Moon" by Will Ackerman, I noticed that the record sounded phenomenal. So much clearer. It sounded like I was in the studio.
Needless to say, I am excited to experience this again in a couple months with the towers!
Good luck, I am sure you will figure it out soon.
-Ben
Bikerduck says the problem followed the speakers so I don't see how it could be the room acoustics. This may seem obvious but did you remove the protective cover on the RAAL's? When I first got my Sierra 2's, I neglected to do that and was scratching my head wondering why did people rave about these speakers, especially the tweeters? Then I discovered my mistake, removed the covering, and heard why there were so many raves about them.