ARE HIGH PRICED AMPS WORTH IT? EMOTIVA XPA-HC1 REVIEW
Emotiva XPA-HC1 review by Andrew Robinson
ARE HIGH PRICED AMPS WORTH IT? EMOTIVA XPA-HC1 REVIEW
A lot of reviewers, myself included, often talk about how a speaker needs MORE POWER to sound its best. And I get why this may cause not only confusion, but also frustration. Just try searching for more powerful amplifiers and you quickly discover that the more power you need, the MORE money you have to spend. Can the Emotiva XPA-HC1 buck that trend –and, for the vast majority of you, be the last amplifier you’ll ever really need?
EMOTIVA XPA-HC1 AMPLIFIER SPECS
The XPA-HC1 is one of Emotiva’s new-ish XPA amplifier modules resting in its own, smaller, chassis. Rated at 300 Watts into eight Ohms and 600 Watts into four, the XPA-HC1 is a hybrid of sorts. It is a discrete, dual differential amp that utilizes a Class A/B amplifier section mated to a Class H power supply for better efficiency, while preserving the sound quality most listeners associate with Class A/B designs. You can connect it to your stereo preamp, home theater processor or home theater receiver’s preamp outputs using either a balanced or unbalanced connection. Power remains the same regardless of your connection, though you will enjoy a better signal to noise ratio when using a balanced connection.
EMOTIVA HC1 DESIGN
The HC1 is an all black affair with Emotiva’s trademark metal rails running top to bottom along the outer edges. All of the indicator lights, which include the large standby/power button, glow blue in typical Emotiva fashion –though they can be defeated (yay). While the amp itself has a relatively compact footprint, it’s still quite beefy visually, though not too heavy at only 21 pounds. Around back you’ll find a robust pair of binding posts, as well as the amp’s balanced and unbalanced inputs, which are selectable via a small toggle switch. Throw in a couple of trigger ports and a removable power cord and you have the HC1’s physical appearance all summed up.
XPA-HC1 SETUP
Setup is pretty straightforward, because the HC1 is a TRUE monaural amplifier, you will need one HC1 per speaker, so we used two in order to power the new Polk Audio R700 towers. Like I said earlier, you can connect the HC1 to your stereo preamp, home theater processor or home theater receiver’s preamp outputs. Because I didn’t want to do away with modern conveniences like HDMI connectivity, I opted to use the Marantz 8015 AV Receiver as a preamp. You can put the 8015 into a strict preamp mode which I did for this review as well as running it exclusively in its Pure Direct mode to further cut down on the possibility for sonic contamination.
The first thing I like to do when testing a truly powerful amplifier is turn the sound down. Stick with me. While an amp with as much juice as the HC1 can no doubt make a speaker shine, the point of power is less about volume and more about control –absolute control. So while it may be tempting to get a powerful amp such as the HC1 and turn everything to eleven, that may be missing the larger point –so let’s break it down.
A good amp is not going to give you more bass, more midrange or higher highs. An amplifier cannot inject or create sound out of thin air that isn’t already present in the signal; it can only amplify what it is given, and as a result if you’re experiencing MORE of something the amp is simply giving your speakers the requisite “tools” to perform at their best. Meaning, if you’re getting more of any one aspect of a speaker’s performance, for example higher highs or richer bass, it’s because the amp is “unlocking” more of the speaker’s inherent potential. So at any volume, with a quality amplifier (one that is not introducing distortion), you should be treated to the SAME amount of detail, intelligibility, tone and separation. The only thing that should change is the scale. Again, assuming the amp is good.
EMOTIVA AT LOWER VOLUMES
The Emotiva at lower volumes, I’m talking between 35 and 50dB, the HC1 positively sings. Within a few seconds of hitting play it was obvious what copious amounts of power on tap brings to the performance. Typically with lower Watt, or less capable amplifiers, there is a threshold you have to cross, before the amp and speaker seem to get on the same page and play sweet, sweet music together. Sometimes that threshold can be a certain volume level, which for some, may be too loud for everyday listening. In my experience the Polk Reserve speakers have been the type of speakers that require a bit more from an amplifier –even good ones. Which is why I’ve concluded a lot of my remarks about the Reserve series with, make sure you have a good, powerful amp - and the Emotiva fits the bill.
At volumes hovering around 50dB and playing the track Seville off the Mission Impossible II soundtrack, I was treated to the same three-dimensional and holographic presentation I know many speakers are capable of when pushed, only I was hearing it in its full glory at background listening levels! And when I say full glory I mean the soundstage was vast and well appointed with the dancer’s footsteps traveling front to back and left to right with absolute precision. More impressive still, was the fact that the various points of impact were bang on. Sure, if I turned things up I was treated to more palpable weight with each heel-toe strike, but with respect to detail and absolute separation it was 100 percent present, regardless of volume.
SCALE, DETAIL AND DYNAMICS
And this was true of every track I cued up whether it was a live track, like Tori Amos’ Cornflake Girl from Live in Kansas, or something a bit harder like Korn’s Freak on a Leash, the Emotiva never failed in allowing the Polk towers to flex their true skills with respect to conveying the scale, detail and dynamics of a performance at any volume. Sticking with Freak on a Leash (which admittedly is not THE BEST quality recording) and setting the volume to stun, the Emotiva proved to be unflappable. I could detect zero strain, zero distortion, zero, well, anything it all scaled as I dialed the volume up and down. Even listening at levels I typically DO NOT enjoy, I’m talking peaks well above the mid 90s, the HC1 never struggled -hell, to put it in human terms, it was strolling.
WHAT DOES THE XPA-HC1 SOUND LIKE?
If you’ve made it this far and are thinking to yourself, well is the amp warm, cool, bass-heavy, lean or any of the other usual reviewer speak? The Emotiva is none of those things. I do not believe this amp has a sound of its own and between my subjective tests and the amplifier’s specs it would appear that the designers at Emotiva have gone to some length to ensure that is the case. So no, the amp isn’t forward or fatiguing. It isn’t warm or chocolatey, nor is its bass rich or worse bloated. If anything the Emotiva has given me an even greater appreciation for what the Polk R700 can do.
Like Kristi, I struggled with this review because there isn’t any overt anything happening BECAUSE of the Emotiva. Going off of the various measurements (assuming you trust Emotiva), they’re arguably better than some top-tier amps from the likes of Mark Levinson. Honestly, I had to look up the spec sheet of one of my all-time favorite amplifiers, the Krell Evo 402e, to find an amp that outright bested the Emotiva mono here. While I certainly don't listen to specs, when faced with a sound that is, well, this seemingly transparent to the source you have to wade into deeper waters to help illustrate your point.
EMOTIVA MONOBLOCK DOWNSIDES
As far as sound goes there is absolutely nothing that I have found objectionable about the HC1. While I love the idea of monoblocks I am reminded of why I prefer integrated amplifiers over separate components. With separate amps I lose more physical and visual space and I hate that. I would have liked to have seen the amps made smaller perhaps by reconfiguring the module’s orientation within the chassis, but I understand that Emotiva is probably configuring it this way for economic reasons, both their own and for their customers’ wallets. As I’ve said before, I think Emotiva is due for a style change. Their trademark look has grown a bit stale. Keeping things the same may be one of the ways they’ve kept costs down but at some point, you gotta stop being a tight-ass.
EMOTIVA MONOBLOCK COMPARISONS
As far as Emotiva monoblock comparisons go, it cannot be overstated just how much you get for your money. I mean I don’t even have to try and find examples of products that will run you much, much more while providing you with little if any appreciable differences apart from maybe build quality and/or style. For example, the Parasound Halo JC1+ will run you almost $17,000 a pair and for that you’re getting a bit more power, but that’s really it. Because the rest of the amp’s specs (apart from amplifier Class) aren’t THAT different. Now I have not heard the JC1+, but I have spent time with the previous generation and going off memory, which admittedly is short, nothing jumped out at me during my Emotiva evaluation that made me even think oh, remember the JC1’s?
EMOTIVA VS XTZ
Looking for a more apples to apples comparison, there is the XTZ Edge A2-400, which is, admittedly, a stereo amp that can be turned into a mono one producing similar power to that of the Emotiva though it uses a slightly different Class D amplifier design. Pitted head-to-head the XTZ amps definitely had more gain out of the box, which meant I had to turn the Marantz down in order to level match the two for a proper comparison. Once I did that, the XTZ was noisier, exhibiting hiss from the Polk’s tweeters that was audible at my listening position during quiet passages. The Emotiva on the other hand was stone cold silent. I also felt as if the separation between instruments and soundstage scale was just a tad more reserved and linear or two dimensional with the XTZ. Both amps sounded good tonally. The XTZ wasn’t leaner or warmer per se, just that notes and/or instruments weren’t as cleanly defined as they were with the Emotiva, so if it were me, I’d go with the HC1. Considering a pair of XTZs will run you more than a pair of HC1s, the choice is made even easier.
EMOTIVA VS CROWN AMPS
Compared to the best bang for the buck amp that I know of, the Crown XLS DriveCore 2 –specifically the 1002 – here’s where things get interesting. Straight up a pair of 1002s will run you $770 which is a substantial savings over the HC1. In their mono configuration the 1002 churns out 700 Watts which is more than double that of the HC1. In reality a single 1002 or 1502 at $499 is a better head-to-head in terms of power, but let’s focus on the 1002. The 1002, like the XTZ, is noisier, meaning hiss is audible unless you dial back the gain, but even at 12 o’clock you can still hear it. Now I can live with that given how much raw performance you’re getting from such a cheap amp, but I understand that hiss can be a deal breaker.
Hiss aside, there is very little separating these two products sonically. In fact they sound more similar than different, which I consider to be a good thing. You’re free to disagree with me, but don’t forget that the DriveCore design is so good even Harman (Crown’s parent company) thought to include variations of it in its blue-chip products from the likes of Lexicon and Mark Levinson –albeit with a more audiophile appropriate price tag. So if I wanted to ball out on a budget the Crown is still unbeaten, but if you want to ensure you’re getting the better overall amp in terms of things you maybe cannot outright hear or perceive that easily, the Emotiva HC1 is the only other amp this reviewer would consider –unless of course you want to sell me a Krell Evo 402e cheap!
FINAL THOUGHTS
We don’t do a lot of standalone amp reviews on this channel because when only evaluating power it can be hard; either an amp is doing what it has been designed to do or it's not. If it’s doing anything else, then only you can decide if you like its character - which is just a fancy way of saying you like its style of distortion –which is completely fine. As for the XPA-HC1, it’s a great, honest amplifier that among its audiophile peers, is a bonafide bargain, and an amp I would, at a minimum, audition before parking more money elsewhere for what could amount to marginal –if any –appreciable gains in sound quality.
