XPR-1 Review for EMO fans

Jhayman

To quote Big Dan...
"A price increase will be the LAST thing you'll see coming!

We're going to use our manufacturing and purchasing leverage to reduce prices, not increase them.

And we're going manufacture of these beautiful products in Franklin, TN USA.

It's going to be fun.

Cheers,
Big Dan
"

heiney9

Not a lot of business majors here, are there? You don't get something for nothing. No such thing as a free lunch. Let that sink in for a bit. It's wonder some of you can get along in life based on some of the logic going on in this thread.

Absolutely nothing wrong with bringing lower priced gear to the masses.........but never mistake that as running with the big boys.

H9

Toolfan66

heiney9 wrote: »

Not a lot of business majors here, are there? You don't get something for nothing. No such thing as a free lunch. Let that sink in for a bit. It's wonder some of you can get along in life based on some of the logic going on in this thread.

Absolutely nothing wrong with bringing lower priced gear to the masses.........but never mistake that as running with the big boys.

H9

And running a Dared SL2000A is running with the big boys?

heiney9

Larry, never once have I said it would or does run with the big boys. Never! It's a nice piece that plays above it's price point and I happen to like it very much with $200 worth of NOS tubes in it. Let's not start making things up just to stir the pot.

H9

Loud & Clear

This is such an exciting time for home audio enthusiasts. The trend is moving towards pulling the wool away from the eyes of the good people, and giving us quality sound for reasonable prices. It's a combination of economic downturn and technological advancement. A perfect storm. Technology is giving us better and more capable speakers, and the need for amps to color sound is disappearing. I don't need to futz around with weird little tubes to fix my speakers. My speakers aren't broken! We don't need magic wires, ancient tubes unearthed from cryogenic Tasmania, or the psychic hotline to make good sound. We just need honest engineers, solid build quality, and hardworking Americans to enjoy American music. We need Signal Cable, SVS, Polk Audio, and Emotiva. The future is bright. Oh wait, that doesn't read well. I should say that the future is neutral.

heiney9

Loud & Clear wrote: »

This is such an exciting time for home audio enthusiasts. The trend is moving towards pulling the wool away from the eyes of the good people, and giving us quality sound for reasonable prices. It's a combination of economic downturn and technological advancement. A perfect storm. Technology is giving us better and more capable speakers, and the need for amps to color sound is disappearing. I don't need to futz around with weird little tubes to fix my speakers. My speakers aren't broken! We don't need magic wires, ancient tubes unearthed from cryogenic Tasmania, or the psychic hotline to make good sound. We just need honest engineers, solid build quality, and hardworking Americans to enjoy American music. We need Signal Cable, SVS, Polk Audio, and Emotiva. The future is bright. Oh wait, that doesn't read well. I should say that the future is neutral.

Don't forget to spread your word while riding your unicorn.

Glad you found something that floats your boat, but there's a whole lot more to experience and explore which you will sadly miss out on by having such a narrow view.

H9

nooshinjohn

Why do the posts from L&C and Jhayman make about as much sense as a teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon?

leroyjr1

The same damn folks in every Emotiva thread. It's old, give it up already.

heiney9

leroyjr1 wrote: »

The same damn folks in every Emotiva thread. It's old, give it up already.

I see you made your presence known, you must be old.

Toolfan66

heiney9 wrote: »

Larry, never once have I said it would or does run with the big boys. Never! It's a nice piece that plays above it's price point and I happen to like it very much with $200 worth of NOS tubes in it. Let's not start making things up just to stir the pot.

H9

I was just pulling your leg bud... That's why I put in the

heiney9

Toolfan66 wrote: »

I was just pulling your leg bud... That's why I put in the

I know Larry, just making the point to the peanut gallery because they don't need much to run with and completely take it out of the universe.

BlueFox

Jhayman wrote: »

To quote Big Dan...
"A price increase will be the LAST thing you'll see coming!

We're going to use our manufacturing and purchasing leverage to reduce prices, not increase them.

And we're going manufacture of these beautiful products in Franklin, TN USA.

It's going to be fun.

Cheers,
Big Dan
"

The current line might not increase, the new line will cost more. If prices aren't going up then why aren't they currently being made in TN? Big Dan has the fish on the line, and is reeling them in.

F1nut

Habanero Monk wrote: »

And how much is it if you can't demo Bryston, Pass, Boulder, Krell, McIntosh, Conrad Johnson, locally?

How much? Possibly a huge mistake as you have nothing else to make a comparison. It does take some effort these days in some parts of the country to demo non-consumer gear I grant you, but if you're serious most folks aren't that far from a big city and of course, there are audio shows all over.

If ya know of a audio shop in MI that would let me barrow a high end amp let me know!

Every shop I've been to will let you take home any piece of gear with a CC number as collateral. If you develop a good relationship, they might let you take a piece home without a CC number.

Loud & Clear

heiney9 wrote: »

Don't forget to spread your word while riding your unicorn.

H9

Unicorn? You're futzing around with a horse and buggy, with most of your time spent under the hood. It's time for you to get yourself into a unicornless carriage, my man. Enjoy the music. You don't see F1 wasting his time with vinyl for crying out loud. Come on, Rip Van heiney. Emotiva is changing the game, completely. Step into the light.

Loud & Clear

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Why do the posts from L&C and Jhayman make about as much sense as a teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon?

A cartoon reader. This won't be easy.

cstmar01

Loud & Clear wrote: »

Unicorn? You're futzing around with a horse and buggy, with most of your time spent under the hood. It's time for you to get yourself into a unicornless carriage, my man. Enjoy the music. You don't see F1 wasting his time with vinyl for crying out loud. Come on, Rip Van heiney. Emotiva is changing the game, completely. Step into the light.

You seriously have lost it. Emotiva is changing nothing. Sorry to burst your bubble.

headrott

F1nut wrote: »

You seem very confused on what is what. Carver, with his tube amps, was already in the big leagues. It's Emotiva that hasn't gotten there. In addition, if you think those Carver tube amps are somehow magically going to be priced as Emotiva's gear is now, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Agreed. I was thinking Loud & Clear was trying to get us fired up. Maybe he was serious though?

Jhayman

I don't know what to tell you Bluefox, I asked the question on the Emo forum and that was Dan's reply..
I don't expect the Owner of a company to LIE directly to me when asked, " I fear a price increase coming with the purchase of Carver"

BlueFox wrote: »

The current line might not increase, the new line will cost more. If prices aren't going up then why aren't they currently being made in TN? Big Dan has the fish on the line, and is reeling them in.

Jhayman

I think you are in denial if you think Emotiva is not changing the game..
I'm sure your colleague's will agree, if for no other reason of bringing quality Amps to the Masses cheaper than ever before..

cstmar01 wrote: »

You seriously have lost it. Emotiva is changing nothing. Sorry to burst your bubble.

tonyb

Jhayman wrote: »

I think you are in denial if you think Emotiva is not changing the game..
I'm sure your colleague's will agree, if for no other reason of bringing quality Amps to the Masses cheaper than ever before..

Do you not see the problem with that statement ? Those 2 words don't belong in the same sentence.

To me its just a branding issue that Emo wants to improve. Don't blame them either. Kinda like Lexus, which already has established a brand associated with quality but at a higher price. If someone was to tell you they have a brand new Lexus for 10 grand, you'd be suspicious. Now take a brand like any of the Korean car makers who are associated with cheap and not too dependable. If they were to put out a so called quality car also very cheap, would you still not be suspicious ? Either car would get you from point A to point B and back. Thing is you know corners have to be cut somewhere to meet certain price points, it's just economics. If you going to brand something as high end, but cut those corners to meet price points of lower models, it's going to show in the car or in the amp. Just my .02, still....I don't blame Emo for buying Carver to improve on their brand. Just good business thinking. Only time will tell if any of that trickles into Emo's line up. Maybe a tube hybrid is in Emo's future.

heiney9

tonyb wrote: »

Do you not see the problem with that statement ? Those 2 words don't belong in the same sentence.

To me its just a branding issue that Emo wants to improve. Don't blame them either. Kinda like Lexus, which already has established a brand associated with quality but at a higher price. If someone was to tell you they have a brand new Lexus for 10 grand, you'd be suspicious. Now take a brand like any of the Korean car makers who are associated with cheap and not too dependable. If they were to put out a so called quality car also very cheap, would you still not be suspicious ? Either car would get you from point A to point B and back. Thing is you know corners have to be cut somewhere to meet certain price points, it's just economics. If you going to brand something as high end, but cut those corners to meet price points of lower models, it's going to show in the car or in the amp. Just my .02, still....I don't blame Emo for buying Carver to improve on their brand. Just good business thinking. Only time will tell if any of that trickles into Emo's line up. Maybe a tube hybrid is in Emo's future.

Tony don't confuse them with logic.

H9

tonyb

Eh Brock, call it a life lesson. You know those old saying..."if it sounds too good to be true", chances are it isn't. The thing that kills me in any of this and not just Emo is that life lessons have to be learned by each generation, time and time again. Quality costs more money, economics dictates so. Bang for the buck ? Yeah....it's there within different brands and different lines. But comparisons to high end just don't cut the mustard. That's not being snobbish either, just simple common sense.

Jhayman

Wow Tonyb, you really think you schooled me on that post I made eh?
Did you notice the the last edited attempt, it was done on purpose I wanted to see who would jump on that, quality/cheap comment.
I can think of hundreds of analogies to compare quality vs cheap not just cars, I will just start off with chewing gum, Wrigley's chewing gum is $1 and tastes Great but if you want that new gum Stride it cost $2-3 and all you get is a flavour change, just like an Amp..
Same with water you can pay $1 for 24 bottles or you can pay $6 for the same water not on special or a different brand and what do you get a flavour change agin just like an Amp.
Same thing with speakers, Cables, Turntables, and hundreds of things you and I can compare..
But after all is an Amp brand just a flavour you like if so WHY should it cost $$$$ more than others, with Emo you get a five year warranty, Bryston you get a 15-20 year and you pay for that and the flavour of that Amp..
Using your car analogy you are partially correct, can you make a car cheaper than the Koreans?
No of course not why, it's called buying power you are going to pay 10 times the price per part you need because you only need a few of them, not thousands at a time..
Now because you made your car at ten times the price, does that make it better quality?
You have sell that car at a higher price to recoup some of your cost, byway it's just dumb to compare Amps to Cars..like you did.
Like I said the Amp you have, like is the flavour you have, like if you can afford that flavour.
As I'm sure you know there are exceptions to every rule..

Habanero Monk

heiney9 wrote: »

Not a lot of business majors here, are there? You don't get something for nothing. No such thing as a free lunch. Let that sink in for a bit. It's wonder some of you can get along in life based on some of the logic going on in this thread.

Absolutely nothing wrong with bringing lower priced gear to the masses.........but never mistake that as running with the big boys.

H9

Actually I'm glad you brought this point up. Your are 100% correct. Crown has been getting rather rave reviews on the performance of their DriveCore based amps. The ability to work with Texas Instruments and custom develop an IC that takes 500 discrete components, all driven at 1.4Volts instead of 10 and guaranteed much tighter tolerances, and getting it to a single piece of sand on the front side.

There are big boys and then there are big boys. Just like a lot of the botique amp shops can't bring a modern HT Pre-Pro to market they also aren't going to be doing what the was done with DriveCore: Reduce part count, reduce driving voltage, significantly improve tolerances, and do all this while bringing down costs and improving reliability.

Habanero Monk

cstmar01 wrote: »

You seriously have lost it. Emotiva is changing nothing. Sorry to burst your bubble.

When was the last time Rotel, Parasound, et all had the cash (ahem the sales) to gobble up a few other companies and bag (whether you love or hate him) an industry Icon (self promoter)?

They are very much changing the industry. Just not the 7 people here. I think they are ok with that

Habanero Monk

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Why do the posts from L&C and Jhayman make about as much sense as a teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon?

BlueFox wrote: »

The current line might not increase, the new line will cost more. If prices aren't going up then why aren't they currently being made in TN? Big Dan has the fish on the line, and is reeling them in.

Add one more to the list. What does one think when they say prices aren't going up? The new line is higher end, hence higher pricing (and larger margin).

"If prices aren't going up then why aren't they currently being made in TN?" Still trying to decipher that rather cryptic statement.

Toolfan66

A fanboy of an audio company baffles my mind.. You have to be employed by them, be part owner, or just plan crazy!! Out of all the other audio company's out there, I have never seen "anything" like the EMO fanboys.. It's crazy!!!

I bet you get all teary eyed when you see an ad..

pitdogg2

Habanero Monk wrote: »

When was the last time Rotel, Parasound, et all had the cash (ahem the sales) to gobble up a few other companies and bag (whether you love or hate him) an industry Icon (self promoter)?

1. They do not need to as they have there own core of folks just like Emo. They also have many many years of great solid gear and have also been very innovative. Rotel was one of the first to build Ice(class D) amps before Pioneer even thought of it.

2. umm John Curl is also an industry Icon

kuntasensei

DSkip wrote: »

This is why these threads always go to crap. They can't handle criticism of the brand. For some reason, it becomes a personal attack.

Or one could also say that those who are critical of the brand feel the need to post in these threads every single time the name is mentioned. Not saying there isn't an element of fanboyism at work... but the usual suspects also seem to feel the need to chime in with the usual nonsense every single time. Is it really so awful that people LIKE Emotiva's products? Why does that threaten anyone? Just sayin'... The sword cuts both ways on this matter.

WLDock

WOW, and I thought the car audio forums were crazy. The Emo/Carver ride is going to be interseting to say the least.