Listening to Stanley Clarke's rendition of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"...a most excellent recording with NO distortion.

Stanley Clarke & Friends/Live -- Goodbye Pork Pie Hat


T Cobe -- I know what you mean about hearing distortion in some of these recordings. I own the Mingus Ah Um cd and can hear it in various tracks...can be very annoying. In my opinion, ordering some of these cd's can be a "Crap Shoot".

Anthem,

Do you know if this distortion is present on the vinyl versions of these classic albums? Curious if the vinyl versions are better and if something is done wrong by the sound engineer in transferring the music to digital. I may hold off on buying any more classics until I test out a few of them on vinyl. My Emotiva XSP-1 arrives Wednesday. I'm debating if my next upgrade will be a balanced CD player or a turntable now... My Oppo BDP-103 sounds pretty good in my current set up. I'm excited to hear how a dedicated stereo pre-amp will improve my music.

Cheers,

T Cobe

T Cobe: I haven't had a working turntable in my house for over 10 years, so as to how vinyl sounds on these recordings, I'm clueless in Kansas.

Your turning into quite the "Emotiva Poster Child" with all that new gear. I really think you're gonna like the XSP-1...I've heard high praise on their web site. As far as balanced connections are concerned, I can take it or leave it...not really a noticeable improvement even with $1000.00 Audioquest Cheetah XLR interconnects.

Anthem,

I have found Emotiva to be a good value and worthy of their positive reviews. For me, my budget, and my use, their products are in the sweet spot. After the XSP-1, I may add their CD player but that will be it until I add Atmos. I admit that I also like matching gear, so the fewer brands in my set-up, the better. Throw in Marantz and Panamax and you've got a pretty good black and blue theme going. It should all look pretty good in a flush mounted AV equipment rack. Begin with the end in mind...

Cheers,

T Cobe

Hi all, I could not agree more with T Cobe about the Emotiva gear!! I am running XPA-2s in bridged mode and an XPA-1L for center. I also have a Panamax line conditioner. All the blue lights do look really good:) I am waiting on the reference version of the preamp/processor to come out later this year!!!

Enjoy!

Anthem, I've become an pretty big Emotiva fan over the past few years. Its been incremental, and each successive bit has been a very pleasant experience and I think really great values. Each piece has been terrific (which is why I've built up a pretty fun compliment of their product line).

T.Cobe, I suspect you'll love the XSP-1. My XMC-1 has been stellar. A few issues with Dirac and I'm not crazy about the remote, but sonically it is wonderful. The XSP will no doubt be every bit as good.