Emotiva XPA-5or Oppo BDP-105, Which would be better bang for the buck?

[alexc]

In the ongoing effort to improve our systems....

 

Currently using a 100W AVR and Basic Sony BDP.

 

Have people been thru the same Dilemma and what you decide?

 

Thanks,

Alex

[rocky500]

The biggest difference to improving my sound in my audio journey  was adding a dedicated Amp.

Does your AVR have Preouts? If so I would say a XPA-5 would be the best bang for buck especially as they have a sale at the moment.

[DoggieHowser]

I think the rest of the system, the size of the room and which AVR in particular are all parameters that need to be considered.

 

If you can, look at home theater magazine reviews which stress test the internal amps in the AVRs. You will find that because most AVRs have a relatively small transformer and power supply stage (relative to its rated simultaneous output) that they struggle to deliver their claimed power output when all the channels are driven. 

 

Here's how I see it. A modest external power amp would provide better headroom and dynamics vs the internal amps. But you have to see that your current speakers are really going to benefit from them, ie your speakers are quite power hungry and you want to fill up a large room.

 

The Oppo 105 can also improve the sound with the following caveats:

a. you use the analog output from the Oppo

b. your AVR doesn't do analog to digital conversion of the analog inputs

c. you have to lose the bass management and room EQ to benefit

 

With these trade offs, it is unlikely the Oppo will be a guaranteed improvement. I do think the Oppo will sound good in a stereo setup however, when you have done some basic room treatments and place your speakers as ideally recommended by your manufacturer. This usually means putting the speakers into the room and away from corners and walls.

[anfs]

I think it would be important to know what speakers and sub you are using.

Because I would say you may be better off spending money on new speakers!

[Jone5y]

I'm in a similar boat, will be watching this thread with interest coz until I hear both with my speakers I don't have a clue what the answer is

[peacewise]

Asked myself that OP question a few times over the years. For me I spent more on speakers, then amps, then source/bluray.

Most immediately noticeable improvement has been with an improved amp, relative to source/bluray. I barely noticed an improvement going from a cheapie bluray to the cambridge audio 751 bd. But noticed an immediate & clear improvement adding in a dedicated amp for the front left right.

A bit of fiddling later I discovered the stereo improvement from the ca751 bd analogue stage, relative to the cheapie blurays stereo output.

Also in the consideration, IMO, is that amps technology seems to be moving slower than source/bluray, a solid amp should last longer than a source/bluray.

Only get two years out of spinners these days it seems.

Improvement can be had either way alexc, what takes your fancy? Which is currently better value? That's how I'd approach your question.

[alexc]

Just upgrade the speakers earlier this year =). My current setup is

 

LCR - BW CM9s, BW CMC2

AVR - Yamaha RX-A820 (rated at 100W 2ch)

Sony S590 - BDP

 

The Speakers are rated up to 200W but I don't really need them to be driven hard. I am interested in the clarity and dynamic an amp would bring to this as opposed to a better source player.

[betty boop]

ps for just plain ht watching movies etc a 105 wont bring any more gains than say a $100 cheapie player.

 

I would only go as far as a 105 if looking for analog improvement and as long as your avr wont be a limitation analog wise. most are 

 

as far as the power amp you really will only have your answer if tried with your speakers and experienced for yourself whether the benefit was worth having

 

you dont say what speakers ? or what the avr is.

[peacewise]

What's your main listening? Movies or music?

Seems to me that both the avr & the bdp are weak links, with those nice cm9's needing both more power and a better source!

Which is first? The 105 has only recently come out, it's price is still premium - is it not?

How long has the xpa5 been round now?

[rocky500]

Get the Amp for the biggest improvement. The Yamaha AVR's are not that great with powering demanding speakers and can sound thin and brash. Those BW CM9 drop down to 3 ohms.

Any decent power amp should be a very good improvement with the Yamaha AVR, while I doubt the Oppo would make much difference.

The Emotiva gear is excellent for the price.

Edited June 7, 2013 by rocky500

[anfs]

Peacewise is right in asking is your focus on music or movies?

 

I see you don't have a sub.

If you watch quite a few movies or like listening loud, a sub might be better because you can high pass your mains, allowing you to play louder and relieving your amp and speakers of low bass 

[alexc]

Forgot to mention that I do have a sub; JBL but don't know the model as it is a hand me down. I was thinking the power amp initially but just been reading up about the Oppo hence I thought I ask people on SNA.

[joey2511]

In the ongoing effort to improve our systems....

 

Currently using a 100W AVR and Basic Sony BDP.

 

Have people been thru the same Dilemma and what you decide?

 

Thanks,

Alex

Hi Alex,

I didn't have your dilemma, but I wasn't happy with my Denon AVC-3800 after 10yrs., some things weren't right, I decided to go Pre/Power. Bought a Rotel RSP-1570 pre/pro on Grays and then needed a power amp. Would have preferred a 2nd hand Elektra but none seemed to come up in Melb. at the time, so I bought the Emotiva XPA-5. Had problems with no sound from one of the front channels, changed cables etc to no avail, hoping it wasn't the power amp, thought it might have been the Rotel. Finally contacted Emotiva but in the meantime hooked up my old Denon and discovered it had pre/outs and connected it to two of the channels of four that worked. I rediscovered stereo like I had never heard before, Remember you say your Avr is rated at 100 wpc, that means 1or 2channels can run @ that.

The Emotiva runs @ 200 wpc for each channel all the time. Anyway Emotiva said check the RCA/XLR switches which seemed OK but flicking the problem channel fixed the problem.

 

I could further substantiate why the power amp is the way to go, in fact I will. My brother-in-law bought the same Whatmough P31 speakers that I did, but a much better Marantz AVR, his sound was always better, when he heard my new set up, I can't tell you how many times he said WOW. Finally my Whatmoughs produce the sound they always should have, not that I was never happy with them prior. Change of DVD player won't make the same difference as the Power Amp, I tried with a Denon DVD-3910, still didn't sound as good as my brother-in-laws set up, not any more.

 

The other thing I have noticed, I now play music at much lower volumes than previous. Just don't need it loud to enjoy it, it sounds so much better. Buy the XPA.

 

Cheers Joey

[Addicted to music]

I would agree with most here, the biggest bang fo bucks is to go for a better AV unit. The XPA5 is a power amp and will need a pre to drive it!

The Sony s590 is an excellent spinner, but the analog out for 2 channel is a little to be desired. I have both the Sony s470 and the Sony s470. Lately the Sony s470 is now having read issues so I just got an OPPO 105. There are reasons for the jump and the main one is that the latest Sony blurays no longer have analog out! To get a Sony 790 is $400, so why bother when the OPPO has the facility that it can play 24/192 via a USB HDD. What would be a great combo is a OPPO105 driving a XPA-5 via analog inputs as the OPPO has analog out for surround sound and volume control!

[betty boop]

Forgot to mention that I do have a sub; JBL but don't know the model as it is a hand me down. I was thinking the power amp initially but just been reading up about the Oppo hence I thought I ask people on SNA.

you do have a nice set of speakers, and do need some nice power behind them. I wouldnt discount rotel, nad and elektra power amps all go very nicely with the B&Ws, plenty on the new market being reduced with the mid year sales and quite a few on used market pop up all the time as bargains worth looking out for.

 

you havent mentioned why you want the oppo. is it 2ch analog or movies. I'll re iterate if for movies theres no benefit of it over the 103 or even a $100 player.

 

the processor side will definitely worth spending on if going for an amp. can do better than the yam with better processing and especially if 2ch a focus either with a 2ch pre amp with ht bypass or one of the pre amps that do better with analog, ie marantz, nad, rotel etc...

 

the sub is probably the most important speaker in the system along with the centre. a bit more info ie model number would help. if want to keep the one you have can always just get another

[alexc]

I was thinking with the XPA-5 I would keep the Yamaha receiver for the time being as it does have Pre-Outs to drive the power amp for the time being

 

Funny thing about the JBL sub is that I can't find any model identification on it so I have no idea how powerful it is.

 

In terms of the Oppo Player I have only room for one system and so it will be for movie and music hence why I am looking at the BDP-105 as well to improve the music playback but I heard it was pretty good for movies as well using the analog outs.

[davewantsmoore]

I think it would be important to know what speakers and sub you are using.

Because I would say you may be better off spending money on new speakers!

 

Yep.   OP your speakers need better amps ...but you should really consider better speakers as the best upgrade.

[a.dent]

I was in the same predicament about a year ago.

I ended up buying the Oppo 95 and then a used UPA5.

They both made a huge difference to the SQ but the Oppo improved the PQ dramatically as well.

You can run the Oppo directly into the power amp using the Oppo volume control and processing as I do. You could try it and then sell the AVR if you can do without the Audyssey room correction in the AVR. Personally I prefer the Oppo straight to the power amp rather than through the processor.

The analogue out on the Oppo is really good straight into the UPA5 especially for DVDA and SACD.

So my advice is get both and sell the Yammie!

[anfs]

Funny thing about the JBL sub is that I can't find any model identification on it so I have no idea how powerful it is.

 

Do you find the sub adequate? As in do you wish it went louder or lower?

I still think a sub upgrade might be better than a power amp, especially if you watch a lot of movies or listen to bass heavy music

[alexc]

I don't find the bass lacking at the moment. The speakers I have at the moment are full range and can go down to 30hz.

[caminperth]

Just upgrade the speakers earlier this year =). My current setup is

 

LCR - BW CM9s, BW CMC2

AVR - Yamaha RX-A820 (rated at 100W 2ch)

Sony S590 - BDP

 

The Speakers are rated up to 200W but I don't really need them to be driven hard. I am interested in the clarity and dynamic an amp would bring to this as opposed to a better source player.

 

I've added an Emotiva XPA2 with some B&W683's (a step down from your CM9's) and it's made a definite improvement on general 2ch listening... Throw in a decent DAC and you should have some easily discernible gains over your current setup..

[zakblue]

I just added 2 500W mono XPA-1s to my fronts using the pre-outs on my Pioneer LX-85 Receiver. I was always pretty happy with the surround sound performance of the

amp but this took it to another level.

I use 5 identical bookshelf speakers (Kef Q300)

The sound quality that comes out of L and R compared to the rest now is stupendous. Warmth, refinement and air over 'edgy and bright'.

I'm exaggerating yes but not really by that much. The sound quality for music is amazing too (before I would just turn it off frustrated)

If your AVR is up to task quality/source wise then just go power (XPA-5 is alot of amp for the money)

and then get a decent preamp down the road.

 

I own the Oppo 105. Brilliant Bluray/media player.

I've ran the analog outs into the multi channel in on the LX85 and it was 'meh'.

I haven't had enough time to test whether it's the 85 or the Oppo but I just wasn't

sold in this regard. Quality wise the DACs are probably similar so I don't know.

 

Amp first, then Oppo.

I literally did that very recently and I'm very happy.

[Addicted to music]

What's your main listening? Movies or music?

Seems to me that both the avr & the bdp are weak links, with those nice cm9's needing both more power and a better source!

Which is first? The 105 has only recently come out, it's price is still premium - is it not?

How long has the xpa5 been round now?

The OPPO 105 is on special at Clef Audio, superb product, extremely well built, when driving a power amp direct in 2channel it's second to none, the first thing you notice is the immediate clarity on resolution, the 2nd is channel separation and the ability to give you an image of where the instrument placement are, it allows you to hear every minute detail with precision and ease, basically it goes into the recording and tells it like it is. There is also well defined individual timbre on instruments, and the clarity on bass is something to desire. Listening to a Stax Lambda pro puts you into the music as if you are there, I can't help it but praised the analog out! Under the hood its well constructed, the use of LME devices and metal film resistors is a nice touch that says I measure well!

To be able to play wav and FLAC files enable me to load all my CD collection on a 1TB drive and view the selection via a monitor is brilliant. All I can say is why hasn't other players move into this?

[zakblue]

The OPPO 105 is on special at Clef Audio, superb product, extremely well built, when driving a power amp direct in 2channel it's second to none, the first thing you notice is the immediate clarity on resolution, the 2nd is channel separation and the ability to give you an image of where the instrument placement are, it allows you to hear every minute detail with precision and ease, basically it goes into the recording and tells it like it is. There is also well defined individual timbre on instruments, and the clarity on bass is something to desire. Listening to a Stax Lambda pro puts you into the music as if you are there, I can't help it but praised the analog out! Under the hood its well constructed, the use of LME devices and metal film resistors is a nice touch that says I measure well! To be able to play wav and FLAC files enable me to load all my CD collection on a 1TB drive and view the selection via a monitor is brilliant. All I can say is why hasn't other players move into this?

Yeah i've been doing the same thing. The media browser/player in the Oppo is first rate. I've had a few issues with the Oppo hanging whilst trying to read my 3tb hdd via usb but playing over the network via wifi is amazing.

[Addicted to music]

Yeah i've been doing the same thing. The media browser/player in the Oppo is first rate. I've had a few issues with the Oppo hanging whilst trying to read my 3tb hdd via usb but playing over the network via wifi is amazing.

 

I have loaded the latest firmware when i 1st got it, yes I am also experiencing the freezing you are reporting, nothing works and in one instant i had to cycle OFF/ON, in another i waited and it came good!  Other than that I cannot help but praise the outcome of this purchase, the only grip is the volume control doesnt go down far low enough or refine enough like the M51.