Well, my shipping plan didn't work out the way I planned. The nice people at Emotiva sort of messed up and didn't ship the unit with the right labeling to have it held at the FedEx office. I have to give the driver credit, he actually called and asked if I wanted to meet up with him because they weren't going to hold it at the location it was being sent to. I called FedEx when I got home from work and they informed me I could pick it up at the main depot but didn't inform me I'd have to get it that night which I couldn't. I then found out they shipped it back to sender the next morning. I called Emotiva and to save any more aggravation, I decided to have it shipped to my house for the extra money. They sent another one out the same day and I received it in 4 business days. As a default prize I noticed that Emotiva has a big summer sale that just started so I called today and got the price guarantee which knocked off a $100.
I spent Saturday morning modifying my entertainment unit to make room and air space for this monster. Hook up was a breeze, I bought a little 12v adapter to use as a trigger for the amp and after a moment of panic before I realized I had left the back switch off everything fired up great.
I'm no audiophile and I don't really have a trained ear. I also spent the week listening to various movies, CD's and the few SACD's I own in anticipation so I would have a reference to compare to. After a couple days and I hope this isn't wishful thinking, but I feel that I am getting a more full and immersive sound from my speakers. I seem to be getting a deeper or richer bass. Dialogue at lower volume seems to be easier to hear. At the moment my modest right and left speakers are a little undersized for the amp so I haven't really cranked anything up too high. I'm not going to pretend I can hear layers of sound and depth I had not heard before, but having said that, I did notice a subtle heartbeat under some of the track on my Dark Side of The Moon SACD I hadn't noticed before. Not sure if that's a result of me listening more critically or what. So far it has been running cool, I have it on a bottom shelf with lots of room, but I did put my PS3 fatboy on top and tried it last night watching a couple movies and the PS3 runs way hotter, I don't really feel much heat from it at all.
Final conclusion is that I'm more than happy with my purchase, and while I'm sure that the XPA-5 probably isn't comparable to many higher end amps, for the money I spent, I look forward to getting some Polk RTiA-7's to replace my current sides knowing I have the power to run them. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one to my friends.
A word of caution to anyone thinking of buying one though, this thing is deeper than any receiver I've seen, by a few inches at least, and then when you add in the amount of room you need for the RCA interconnects sticking out the back and you might run into problems fitting it into some wall units or enclosed shelves.
Picked up a bunch of Emo items in July and the items were in the new section holding tires, big boxes, etc. No excess weight charges in the place. Charged me US$5 for each box whether it was the 85 lbs UPA-7 or a 4-lb box from mycablemart.com.
