I admit I've never had access to a $50K amplifier to look under the hood but I have looked at my share of others to know it doesn't take an experienced designer to know when you see a printed wire board attached to an amplifiers heat sink thats so thin that its warped into shape, its design goal is obviously low cost.
As I said earlier I compared the XAP-2 to my $1100. pr. Hypex nCore mono blocks which bettered them handily throughout the bandwidth. This comparison was very revealing of the XPA's slightly exaggerated and much less defined bass. As well as the XPA's congestion when pushed which left me questioning their companies rated output. With less revealing speakers results may vary greatly and may be acceptable for some.
When one sees component brands such as Antenka, Zhejiang Lema, Salecom, Buondi, and the seemingly high quality appearance of Dongguan City Kaihua switches, one shouldn't take note?
There is know qualification to being an audiophile. If one spends ten cents more on anything that may sound better, then he/she is in the mob with the rest of us, period.
Stereophile provides what they title, "Measured performance," and has mentioned countless times that a products measured performance may not be indicative of the products actual sonic performance. In some cases the reviewers impressions can correlate with some aspect of its measured performance. Many find this simple and straight forward and understand the relationship with their advertisers. Regardless, most appreciate the effort taken.
The point of forums and threads like this is to share experiences, not to hold back information one may be privy to and then criticize some poor chump who felt so strongly about an expensive product or simply got sold, is hardly comical just truly lame.
I stand by my experience and have no qualms about sharing my impressions, after all I paid for the inconvenience. The great majority of manufactures who provide inexpensive good preforming audio products are not so ashamed of their manufacturing as to decline discussing their process under the guise of, "we do not share such information with the general public or our customers for a multitude of reasons. Sorry."
The company in question is the only one I've had experience with that finds such complete secrecy regarding their manufacturing a prudent action and I have to wonder why.
If one has no concerns and feels their practice is acceptable then drill baby drill, it's a free country.
