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.
The XPA-2 was designed and built around two specific ideas: Power and finesse.
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1. Power. Inside the heavy gauge steel chassis, a massive torroidal transformer pumps 250 watts per channel through 24 high current output devices into 8 ohms, and 500 watts per channel into 4 ohms.
It's power that will wake up your speakers and inject a life into them like you've never heard before.
The kind of power that gives you serious headroom, and total control over your sound. |
You'll notice detailed highs and a powerful, tight, extended low end that can take whatever's thrown at it. As one user gleefully commented, 'It's a rock concert in an 80 pound box.'
2. Finesse. Power is nothing without control. The XPA-2 was designed and constructed to be a very transparen/neutral amplifier. There is no 'coloring' of the sound, it's just amplified with a flat response across the entire, extended frequency bandwidth. The 'more' you're hearing in a familiar movie or CD? It's been there all along, finally being revealed to you.
The neutral aspect of the amp, combined with its massive power, opens up the sound stage, bringing greater resolution, detail, imaging and separation to all types of music and movies.
Listen to your jazz open up and breathe like never before. Hear that favorite symphony recording gain a new level of dynamics and sense of tangibility. Feel a part of the action and excitement of movies like never before. And yes, crank up the rock and get lost in it.
• 250 watts RMS x 2 into 8 ohms, 500 watts RMS x 2 into 4 ohms
• Amplifier Class: Short signal path A/B
• Output design: Triple Darlington with ON semiconductor output stages
• Differential Drive: Dual Differential input
• Types of inputs: Both Balanced (XLR) and Un-balanced (RCA)
• Type of outputs: Audiophile quality 5 way binding post
• Display type: Digital VU meters
• Metering: 14) Blue LEDS and 1) red per channel
• Power output: 250 watts RMS/ channel into 8 ohms, 500 watts RMS/ channel into 4 ohms and 1,000 watts RMS bridged.
• THD+N at rated power output: 0.007%
• S/N ratio: >100db
• Frequency response: 10 to 120Khz (-3db) and 20 to 20 (with less than .15db deviation)
• Gain structure: 32db
• Transformer size: 1200VA mounted in a reinforced steel super structure
• Secondary capacitance: 54,000uF
• Massive aluminum heat sinks running the length of the amp ensure cool operation and amp longevity
• Weight: Approximately 75 pounds
• Raw Weight: 75.4lbs/ 34.2kg
• Shipping Weight: 88.6lbs / 40.2kg
• Dimensions: 17” W x 7.75” H x 19” D (432mm W x 197mm H x 483mm D)
Additional features: Glass epoxy pc boards, 1% resistors, metal film capacitors, soft start circuitry (does not have a current spike on start up), dual stage rectifiers and secondary capacitance.
Compartmentalized design for greater isolation from noise. The transformer is mounted in it's own substructure. The amplfiier channels are all fully shielded, and the unit has switches for turning the metering and/or status LEDs on or off. The amplifier also features automatic voltage selection.
Power. Finesse. The XPA-2. $799 |
