There is the Jungson JA 99D Standard model which is cheaper that runs Class A/B at 300wats
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There is the Jungson JA 99D Standard model which is cheaper that runs Class A/B at 300wats
That sounds like a better proposition.
Class A will by its very nature remove certain types of distortion. It is of course possible that the Jungson actually needs this to sound good.
As an aside if you're after an example of how a well designed and built class B amplifier should perform then the Musical Fidelity Titan, comes pretty close.
Stereophile: Musical Fidelity Titan power amplifier
This isn't supposed to be an exercise in oh look at the extremely expensive amplifier with amazing measured performance. Any well designed class B amplifier should perform to a similar standard within it's power limits.
And as a comparison here's MFs 750 watt amplifier and the measured performance there, with regards to distortion is absolutely horrible.
Stereophile: Musical Fidelity kW Hybrid line preamplifier & kW750 power amplifier
Isn't the B139 bass driver only rated at 30 Watts ??
Remember that these speakers came out in the days when 45 watts per channel from a Quad 303 was considered excessive
Recently I saw a Yamaha A700 amp on ebay recently that was selling for 200 bucks. It uses good quality Sanken output transistors and is rated at 100 watts per channel and has a high bias setting for 10 watts of class A. More than enough for the Concertos
regards
emotiva xpa1
hi Erin
you really should go for the emotiva - it is fantastic value and will give you hrs of enjoyment - dont worry too much abt the technical details.
I have a pair delivered to me last week and am exceedingly happy with it!
And I do live in Melbourne.
My well informed friend, on listening to it could not believe the power, dynamics and soundstage of these beasts. He thought it was a Krell or Bryston when the front of it were covered so that he did not know the make.
I had a look at the Jungson a while ago and was not impressed by it.
You will not regret your decision - and the people at Emotiva are nice people to deal with unlike sales people and dealers here.
Good luck
hi Erin
you really should go for the emotiva - it is fantastic value and will give you hrs of enjoyment - dont worry too much abt the technical details.
I have a pair delivered to me last week and am exceedingly happy with it!
And I do live in Melbourne.
My well informed friend, on listening to it could not believe the power, dynamics and soundstage of these beasts. He thought it was a Krell or Bryston when the front of it were covered so that he did not know the make.
I had a look at the Jungson a while ago and was not impressed by it.
You will not regret your decision - and the people at Emotiva are nice people to deal with unlike sales people and dealers here.
Good luck
Well, Turbo88888 was very kind to let me come over and hear his Emotiva XPA-1 amps. Thank you again Turbo88888!
Just goes to show we have a great community here on diyaudio.
I have to agree, now I know what all the fuss is about. They really are good amps.
I found the tone to be correct, dynamics were as good as anyone would want, they were smooth, they were detailed, and very neutral.
Last weekend Paul and I had a listen to a Jungson JA-88 at a local Hi Fi shop. ( perhaps Paul would like to add his comments?)
I think we were both a little bit underwhelmed with the bass performance of this amp.
It was "sweet" sounding and "warm" but for me this is the sound of high distortion - not a well designed class A amp. Detail levels were a bit down on expectations.
I cant give either of these amps a more detailed review, as I did not listen to either of them in my own system. But from what I heard, I have arrived at my answer, in my opinion, the XPA-1 is the winner.
A big thanks to all who contributed to this thread.
Just goes to show we have a great community here on diyaudio.
I have to agree, now I know what all the fuss is about. They really are good amps.
I found the tone to be correct, dynamics were as good as anyone would want, they were smooth, they were detailed, and very neutral.
Last weekend Paul and I had a listen to a Jungson JA-88 at a local Hi Fi shop. ( perhaps Paul would like to add his comments?)
I think we were both a little bit underwhelmed with the bass performance of this amp.
It was "sweet" sounding and "warm" but for me this is the sound of high distortion - not a well designed class A amp. Detail levels were a bit down on expectations.
I cant give either of these amps a more detailed review, as I did not listen to either of them in my own system. But from what I heard, I have arrived at my answer, in my opinion, the XPA-1 is the winner.
A big thanks to all who contributed to this thread.
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i got to audition the jungson 99d in beijing today. sadly, i wasn't impressed at all. sure it has that class A charm, but my mingda tube gears were much more musical and a vintage sansui 919 would do everything else better. the bass on the jungson was flabby and the whole spectrum lacked definition. it was too milky for my tastes. good news, though, is that it doesn't have that 'paint shop' smell of most chinese hifi gears that can make you a bit euphoric even when it's not playing any music.
I noticed that the 88D had flabby bass as well. And I think even a Sansui AU-417 would do everything better than the Jungson.
That is a hillarious comment. LOL. Unfortuantly the Emotivas do have the paint shop smell. I dont think that smell ever goes away.
Have you received your XPA-1's yet? I have owned them for just over a year and love them. I don't think they are the best made but I am not going to spend 10K more to get a better amp. I am currently waiting for the XMC-1 to come out so I can finish out my system.
Its been a while, but I finally decided to buy the XPA-2 instead of the XPA-1.
Straight out of the box and after some run-in, it sounded quite muddy in the bass, mids were lacking detail, and the highs were shrill. So, as you do, I opened up the lid and removed the output stages and found that the output stage is loaded with greencaps, which have no business in the audio signal path, as well as the greencaps there are 3 electrolytic DC blockers. The balanced and unbalanced signal inputs run directly through
the cheap nasty "balanced/unbalanced" switch on the back panel.
So I have replaced the greencaps with MKT caps and removed and bypassed the first DC blocker, and the other DC blockers replaced with wima 3.3uf MKT caps. Bypassed the nasty switch as I only use RCA connection. Reassembled, listened, and Wow! a totally different amp! Lots of clarity, detail, bass is incredible and defined. A lovely amp!
Now I'm very happy with my purchase. You couldn't buy a new amp this good, with this much power anywhere else for $700 + delivery.
For what its worth, with my inefficient KEF Concerto speakers, the 250/300 Watts into 8 ohms is a very necessary amount of power, during dynamic passages of music, the amp is still cruising, music can be reproduced at "live" levels with not a hint of distortion, or rail sag, or compression, and does this with a great amount of detail.
So to answer the question of if the XPA-2 is a genuine audiophile amp, I would say YES!!! if you are able to do some small modifications for yourself. If you are not able to modify this amp, then no. I think the many glowing reviews of this amp have been written by cloth eared people or people who highly value "slam" over detail. No doubt this amp will give "slam" in its original state but will not give detail or sound stage, after mods it is an amp that will compete with the best.
Straight out of the box and after some run-in, it sounded quite muddy in the bass, mids were lacking detail, and the highs were shrill. So, as you do, I opened up the lid and removed the output stages and found that the output stage is loaded with greencaps, which have no business in the audio signal path, as well as the greencaps there are 3 electrolytic DC blockers. The balanced and unbalanced signal inputs run directly through
the cheap nasty "balanced/unbalanced" switch on the back panel.
So I have replaced the greencaps with MKT caps and removed and bypassed the first DC blocker, and the other DC blockers replaced with wima 3.3uf MKT caps. Bypassed the nasty switch as I only use RCA connection. Reassembled, listened, and Wow! a totally different amp! Lots of clarity, detail, bass is incredible and defined. A lovely amp!
Now I'm very happy with my purchase. You couldn't buy a new amp this good, with this much power anywhere else for $700 + delivery.
For what its worth, with my inefficient KEF Concerto speakers, the 250/300 Watts into 8 ohms is a very necessary amount of power, during dynamic passages of music, the amp is still cruising, music can be reproduced at "live" levels with not a hint of distortion, or rail sag, or compression, and does this with a great amount of detail.
So to answer the question of if the XPA-2 is a genuine audiophile amp, I would say YES!!! if you are able to do some small modifications for yourself. If you are not able to modify this amp, then no. I think the many glowing reviews of this amp have been written by cloth eared people or people who highly value "slam" over detail. No doubt this amp will give "slam" in its original state but will not give detail or sound stage, after mods it is an amp that will compete with the best.
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Class-A is not always better IMO.
LOL,,,,,,
Glad you got the bigger amp erin and the Emotiva is good value. I have not heard anyone complain about the sound out of the box as you have, it could have been a lack of system symmetry more than just the sound of the amplfier. Anyway I'm sure your mods made for a better amplifier .
What are you using for a Pre?
Hi Erin - I wish that I had seen this thread when it started out - oh well - see some - miss some.
I live near Emo's home - hmmmmm - headquarters / distribution plant in Tennessee, and went to the 2010 EmoFest to check out their gear. They had displays where all of the gear was opened up and you could take a look at it. Everything looked fairly decent given their price point and direct marketing business model. The price vs. value seemed acceptable, but keep in mind that while Emo is designed to be good (perhaps very good) gear it makes no pretense that is not in the "exotic" league. In terms of automobiles you would be comparing a Corvette (Emo) to a Massarati ("exotic"). Which level of performance will you be satisfied with??? The 'Vette is pretty darn goooood! Buuuut that Massarati (or insert your personal favorite "exotic" sports car) has some aspects to it that others wish for besides performance. Me? eh - what I desire has little to do with what you desire or enjoy. (I drive a Ford Explorer)
The odd thing I found at EmoFest was that the big HT room sounded very good - but it was a home theater room - not a listening room.
When I went into the dedicated listening room Emo had their newest speakers being demonstrated and I didn't (couldn't) stay in that room long enough to discover what was wrong with their system. They were playing their newest "big" speakers which were bi-amped and running off of an Apple music server. To me it sounded as if the amp driving the tweeters had been turned off - the speakers sounded as if someone had dropped a heavy shipping blanket over the tops of them.
I assume that being an Emo owner that you are aware of their website.
I guess I should pay a visit and find out if they ever got the UMC-1 controller debugged and up to speed - that is the piece of gear that I went to check out when I went to the show.
One thing that I will give Emo credit for - they put on one heck of an open house and are very friendly people that are truly concerned in their customers satisfaction with their purchase and work very hard at taking care of their clients.
BTW - did you provide Emo with some feedback regarding your amp and the modifications you did? Any response from 'em??
I live near Emo's home - hmmmmm - headquarters / distribution plant in Tennessee, and went to the 2010 EmoFest to check out their gear. They had displays where all of the gear was opened up and you could take a look at it. Everything looked fairly decent given their price point and direct marketing business model. The price vs. value seemed acceptable, but keep in mind that while Emo is designed to be good (perhaps very good) gear it makes no pretense that is not in the "exotic" league. In terms of automobiles you would be comparing a Corvette (Emo) to a Massarati ("exotic"). Which level of performance will you be satisfied with??? The 'Vette is pretty darn goooood! Buuuut that Massarati (or insert your personal favorite "exotic" sports car) has some aspects to it that others wish for besides performance. Me? eh - what I desire has little to do with what you desire or enjoy. (I drive a Ford Explorer)
The odd thing I found at EmoFest was that the big HT room sounded very good - but it was a home theater room - not a listening room.
When I went into the dedicated listening room Emo had their newest speakers being demonstrated and I didn't (couldn't) stay in that room long enough to discover what was wrong with their system. They were playing their newest "big" speakers which were bi-amped and running off of an Apple music server. To me it sounded as if the amp driving the tweeters had been turned off - the speakers sounded as if someone had dropped a heavy shipping blanket over the tops of them.
I assume that being an Emo owner that you are aware of their website.
I guess I should pay a visit and find out if they ever got the UMC-1 controller debugged and up to speed - that is the piece of gear that I went to check out when I went to the show.
One thing that I will give Emo credit for - they put on one heck of an open house and are very friendly people that are truly concerned in their customers satisfaction with their purchase and work very hard at taking care of their clients.
BTW - did you provide Emo with some feedback regarding your amp and the modifications you did? Any response from 'em??
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Class-A is not always better IMO.
LOL,,,,,,
Glad you got the bigger amp erin and the Emotiva is good value. I have not heard anyone complain about the sound out of the box as you have, it could have been a lack of system symmetry more than just the sound of the amplfier. Anyway I'm sure your mods made for a better amplifier .
What are you using for a Pre?
I'm using a Magnet PV-02 5687 Valve pre amp. It is from Thailand and apparently Magnet has an affiliation with US company Marsh Sound.
It is a very detailed yet friendly sounding pre - not harsh like transistor pre-amps can be.
Thanks for you inquiry, but, no, it was not system symmetry. Greencaps really have no business in the audio signal path and really do stuff-up the sound in a big way - you will just have to trust me on this.
The difference between the standard amp and "slightly" modified is chalk and cheese.
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