Well, now I have heard the Emotiva XPA-1's in my room with my 3.6's; I've spent a good part of this weekend listening and comparing them to an old NAD 2200PE that I've had since 1987 and also to a NAD C275BEE that I just picked-up off of Audigon. Result: In my opinion, both of the NAD's sounded better in my room with my other gear than do the XPA-1's. The XPA-1's don't sound bad, they just sound more like BIG SS to me. To my ears, both of the NAD's were much smoother, more liquid, more 3-D, projecting a wider/deeper stage than the XPA-1's, and just plain sounding better overall with more 'in the room' realism...
Most surprising to me however is the fact that the C275BEE definitely had more sold 'thump' in the mid-bass and bass in general. Drums were much taunter, tighter, and more articulated though the NAD; that surprises me! The XPA-1 is 500/1000 into 8/4 ohms while the NAD is 150 Watts continuous. The NAD's have a lot of headroom obviously and I don't think that they ever sounded stressed even with big rock music at 90 db peaks in my 17x26 room..
I would still like to hear a good powerful Pass Labs or maybe the solid state Cary 500 mono blocs on the 3'6's but until I do I am holding on to the C275BEE. Most highly recommended!
