0:02 a lot of reviewers myself included often
0:04 talk about how a speaker needs more
0:07 power to sound its best and i get why
0:09 this may not only cause confusion but
0:11 also frustration i mean just try
0:13 searching for more powerful amplifiers
0:14 and you're quickly going to discover
0:17 that with more power you have to spend
0:18 more money
0:21 can the emotiva xpa hc1 however buck
0:23 this trend and for the vast majority of
0:25 you be the last amplifier you'll ever
0:32 [Music]
0:35 the xba-hc-1 is one of emotiva's new-ish
0:38 xpa amplifier modules resting in its own
0:41 smaller chassis rated at 300 watts into
0:43 8 ohms and 600 watts into four the
0:46 xp-hc-1 is a hybrid of sorts it is a
0:48 discrete dual differential amp that
0:50 utilizes a class a b amplifier section
0:53 mated to a class h power supply for
0:54 better efficiency while still preserving
0:56 the sound quality most listeners
0:59 associate with class a b designs you can
1:00 connect it to your stereo preamp home
1:02 theater processor or home theater
1:05 receivers preamp outputs using either a
1:08 balanced or unbalanced connection power
1:10 remains the same regardless of your
1:12 connection though you will enjoy a
1:14 better signal-to-noise ratio when using
1:17 a balanced connection now the hc-1 is an
1:19 all-black affair with emotiva's
1:20 trademark metal rails running top to
1:23 bottom along the outer edges all of the
1:25 indicator lights which include the large
1:27 standby power button globe blue in
1:30 typical emotiva fashion though they can
1:32 be defeated while the amp itself has a
1:35 relatively compact footprint it's still
1:37 quite beefy visually though it's not too
1:39 heavy at only 21 pounds around back
1:41 you're gonna find a robust pair of
1:42 binding posts as well as the amp's
1:46 balanced and unbalanced inputs which are
1:48 selectable via a small toggle switch
1:50 throw in a couple of trigger ports and a
1:53 removable power cord and you have the hc
1:56 one's physical appearance all summed up
1:57 now setup is pretty straightforward
1:59 because the hc1 is a true monorail
2:01 amplifier you're going to need one amp
2:03 per speaker so we use two in order to
2:06 power the new polk audio r700 towers
2:08 because i didn't want to do away with
2:10 say modern conveniences like hdmi
2:12 connectivity i opted to use the marantz
2:16 8015 av receiver as a preamp now you can
2:18 put the 8015 into a strict preamp mode
2:20 which i did for this review as well as
2:22 running it exclusively in its pure
2:24 direct mode to further cut down on the
2:27 possibility for sonic contamination now
2:28 the first thing i like to do when
2:30 listening to a truly powerful amplifier
2:33 is turn the sound down stick with me
2:35 while an amp with as much juice as the
2:37 hc-1 can no doubt make a speaker shine
2:40 the point of power is less about volume
2:42 and more about control and i'm talking
2:44 absolute control so while it may be
2:45 tempting to get a powerful amp such as
2:48 the hc-1 and turn everything to 11 that
2:51 may be missing the larger point so let's
2:53 break it down a good amp is not going to
2:55 give you more bass more mid-range or
2:57 higher highs an amplifier cannot inject
2:59 or create sound out of thin air that
3:01 isn't already present in the signal it
3:03 can only amplify what it's given and as
3:06 a result if you are experiencing more of
3:08 something the amp is simply giving your
3:10 speakers the requisite tools to perform
3:12 at their best meaning if you're getting
3:14 more of any one aspect of a speaker's
3:17 performance for example higher highs or
3:20 richer bass it's because the amp is
3:22 unlocking more of the speaker's inherent
3:24 potential so at any volume with a
3:26 quality amplifier i'm talking one that
3:29 isn't introducing distortion you should
3:32 be treated to the same amount of detail
3:35 intelligibility tone and separation the
3:37 only thing that should change is the scale
3:39 scale
3:41 so at lower volumes i'm talking between
3:44 35 and 50 db the emotiva positively
3:46 sings i mean within a few seconds of
3:48 hitting play it was obvious what copious
3:50 amounts of power on tap brings to the
3:53 performance typically with lower watt or
3:55 less capable amplifiers there is this
3:57 threshold you have to cross before the
4:00 amp and speakers seem to get on the same
4:02 page sometimes that threshold can be
4:04 well a certain volume level which for some
4:05 some
4:08 may be too loud for everyday listening
4:10 in my experience the polk reserve
4:12 speakers have been the type of speaker
4:15 that require a bit more from an
4:18 amplifier even a good one which is why i
4:20 have concluded a lot of my remarks about
4:23 the reserves series with make sure you
4:26 have a good powerful amp and the emotiva
4:28 fits the bill at volumes hovering around
4:30 50 db and playing the track seville off
4:33 the mission impossible 2 soundtrack i
4:35 was treated to the same 3-dimensional
4:38 and holographic presentation i know many
4:40 speakers are capable of when listening
4:42 back at higher volumes only i was
4:44 hearing it in all of its full glory at
4:46 background listening levels and when i
4:48 say full glory i mean the sound stage
4:51 was vast and well appointed with the
4:53 dancers footsteps traveling front to
4:56 back and left to right with absolute
4:58 precision more impressive still was the
5:00 fact that the various points of impact
5:03 were bang on sure if i turned things up
5:05 i was treated to a more palpable weight
5:07 with each heel-to-toe strike but with
5:09 respect to detail and absolute
5:12 separation it was 100
5:14 present regardless of my volume and this
5:16 was true of every track i queued up
5:18 whether it was a live track like tori
5:20 amos's cornflake girl from live in
5:22 kansas or something a bit harder like
5:24 corn's freak on a leash the emotiva just
5:27 never failed in allowing the polk towers
5:29 to flex their true skills with respect
5:31 to conveying the scale detail and
5:34 dynamics of a performance at any volume
5:36 sticking with freak on a leash which
5:38 admittedly is not the best quality
5:41 recording and setting the volume to stun
5:44 the emotiva proved to be unflappable i
5:47 could detect zero strain zero distortion
5:50 zero well anything it all scaled as i
5:52 dialed the volume up and down even
5:54 listening at levels i typically do not
5:57 enjoy i'm talking peaks well above the
6:00 mid 90s the hc-1 never struggled hell to
6:02 put it in human terms it was strolling
6:03 so if you've made it this far and you're
6:05 thinking to yourself well is the amp
6:08 warm or cool bass heavy lean or any of
6:10 the other usual reviewer speak the
6:12 emotiva is none of these things i do not
6:14 believe this amp has a sound of its own
6:16 and between my subjective tests and the
6:18 amplifiers specs it would appear that
6:20 the designers at emotiva have gone to
6:23 some length to ensure that this is the
6:25 case so no the amp isn't forward or
6:28 fatiguing it isn't warm or chocolaty nor
6:31 is it bass rich or worse bloated if
6:33 anything the emotiva has given me an
6:35 even greater appreciation for what the
6:39 polk r700 can really do
6:40 i struggled with this review because
6:43 there isn't any overt anything happening
6:45 because of the emotiva going off the
6:47 various measurements assuming you trust
6:50 emotiva they are arguably better than
6:52 some top tier amps from the likes of
6:55 mark levinson honestly i had to look up
6:57 the spec sheet of one of my all-time
7:00 favorite amplifiers the krell evo 402e
7:02 to find an amplifier that just outright
7:05 bested the emotiva while i certainly
7:07 don't listen to specs when faced with
7:09 sound that is well this seemingly
7:11 transparent to the source you have to
7:13 wade into some deeper waters to help
7:15 illustrate your point as far as sound
7:16 goes there's absolutely nothing that i
7:19 have found objectionable about the hc1
7:21 and while i love the idea of monoblocks
7:23 i am reminded why i prefer integrated
7:26 amplifiers over separate components with
7:28 separate amps i lose more physical and
7:30 visual space and i just hate that i
7:32 would love to have seen the amps made
7:34 smaller perhaps by reconfiguring the
7:36 modules orientation within the chassis
7:38 but i understand that emotiva is
7:41 probably configuring them this way for
7:43 economic reasons both their own and for
7:45 their customers wallets as i've said in
7:47 the past i think emotive is due for a
7:49 style change their trademark look has
7:52 grown a bit stale keeping things the
7:53 same may be another way that they've
7:56 kept costs down but at some point you
7:59 gotta stop being a tight ass as far as
8:01 comparisons go it cannot be overstated
8:03 just how much you are getting for your
8:06 money i mean i don't even have to try
8:07 and find examples of products that will
8:10 run you much much more while providing
8:12 you with little if any appreciable
8:14 differences apart from maybe say build
8:16 quality and or style for example the
8:19 parasound halo jc one plus will run you
8:22 almost 17 000 a pair and for that you're
8:24 getting a bit more power but that's
8:26 really it because the rest of the amp
8:28 spec apart from the amplifiers class
8:31 aren't that different now i have not
8:33 heard the jc oneplus but i have spent
8:35 time with the previous generation and
8:37 going off memory which admittedly is short
8:38 short
8:40 nothing jumped out at me during my
8:43 emotiva evaluation that made me think oh
8:45 remember the jc ones now looking for
8:46 more apples to apples comparison there
8:49 is the xtz edge a2400 which is
8:51 admittedly a stereo amp that can be
8:54 turned into a mono one producing similar
8:56 power to that of the emotiva though it
8:58 uses a slightly different class d
9:00 amplifier design pitted head to head the
9:03 xtz amps definitely had more gain out of
9:05 the box which meant i had to turn the
9:08 marantz down in order to level match the
9:11 two for a proper comparison but once i
9:14 did that the xtz was noisier exhibiting
9:16 hiss from the polk's tweeter that was
9:18 audible at my listening position during
9:20 quiet passages the imotiva on the other
9:24 hand was stone cold silent i also felt
9:26 as if the separation between instruments
9:28 and the sound stage scale was just a tad
9:30 more reserved and linear or
9:33 two-dimensional with the xtz both amps
9:35 sounded good tonally the xtz wasn't
9:38 leaner or warmer per se just that the
9:40 notes and or instruments weren't as
9:41 clearly defined as they were with the
9:44 emotiva so if it were me i'd go with the
9:47 hc-1 considering a pair of xtz's will
9:50 run you more than a pair of hc ones the
9:52 choice is made even easier now compared
9:54 to the best bang for the buck amp that i
9:56 know of the crown xls drive core 2
9:58 specifically the 1002 here's where
10:00 things get interesting straight up a
10:03 pair of 1002s will run you 770. which is
10:07 substantially less than the hc-1 in
10:09 their mono configuration the 1002 turns
10:11 out 700 watts which is more than double
10:14 that of the hc-1 in reality a single
10:18 1002 or a 1502 at 499 is a better
10:20 head-to-head in terms of power but let's
10:23 focus on the 1002. the 1002 like the xtz
10:25 is noisier meaning hiss is audible
10:27 unless you dial back the gain but even
10:29 at 12 o'clock you can still hear it now
10:31 i can live with that given how much raw
10:33 performance you're getting from such a
10:35 cheap amp but i understand that hiss can
10:38 be a deal breaker but his aside there is
10:39 very little separating these two
10:41 products sonically in fact they sound
10:43 more similar than different which i
10:45 consider to be a good thing now you're
10:46 free to disagree with me but don't
10:49 forget that the drive core design is so
10:52 good even harmon crown's parent company
10:54 thought to include variations of it in
10:55 their blue chip products from the likes
10:58 of lexicon and mark levinson albeit with
11:01 a more audiophile appropriate price tag
11:04 so if i wanted to ball out on a budget
11:06 the crown is still unbeaten but if you
11:08 want to ensure that you are getting the
11:10 better overall amp in terms of things
11:13 you maybe cannot outright hear or
11:16 perceive that easily the emotiva hc1 is
11:19 the only other amp this reviewer would
11:21 consider unless of course you want to
11:24 sell me a krell evo402e on the cheap we
11:25 don't do a lot of standalone amplifier
11:27 reviews on this channel because when
11:30 only evaluating power it can be hard
11:32 either an amp is doing what it has been
11:33 designed to do
11:35 or it's not if it's doing anything else
11:38 then only you can decide if you like its
11:40 character which is kind of a fancy way
11:41 of saying you like its style of
11:45 distortion which is completely fine
11:48 as for the xpa hc-1 it is a great honest
11:50 amplifier that among its audiophile
11:53 peers is a bonafide bargain in an amp i
11:55 would at a minimum audition before
11:57 parking more money elsewhere for what
11:59 could amount to
12:02 marginal if any appreciable gains in
12:04 sound quality so that's it that is now
12:07 my review of the emotiva xpa hc1
12:10 monoblock but now it's time to find out
12:12 what chris even thought of it oh god you
12:15 know these types of products are so hard
12:16 for me and to be honest i think when it
12:18 comes it just comes down to
12:20 did it work
12:21 yes or no yeah
12:23 it did okay that's it thanks for
12:26 watching i mean really
12:27 this review could have been about two
12:30 minutes and i'm sure we'll hear hear
12:32 that uh you know echoed in the comments
12:35 but sure um i i don't know i still
12:37 prefer integrated amps over separates i mean
12:38 mean
12:39 i'm with you there
12:41 but i can see you know how in some
12:43 situations these would come in really
12:45 handy if you've got a pair of speakers that
12:46 that
12:49 just aren't quite cutting it with maybe
12:51 whatever you have in your system yeah
12:52 yeah um
12:54 i would oh
12:55 go ahead i was gonna say it would be a great
12:56 great
12:59 less expensive way if you have more
13:01 expensive speakers and you're curious
13:03 like is there more to be rung out of
13:05 them rather than throw the baby out with
13:08 the bath water i mean there is in-home
13:10 trials with emotive and a lot of other
13:12 brands that make amplifiers as well but
13:16 this would be a really kind of
13:18 inexpensive or more affordable way than
13:19 buying a whole new system to find out if
13:21 you are feeding your speakers the
13:24 absolute best power they need
13:26 i mean speaking of for affordability i
13:28 think that
13:30 their price point makes it
13:33 just damn near impossible to ignore them
13:34 i can't really come up with any reason
13:36 why you would want to spend more than
13:38 this i mean unless you're just
13:41 straight up care only about
13:43 style and or you know maybe you want to
13:48 support a specific brand because you
13:50 know you're just entrenched and
13:52 yeah in their story or their ecosystem yeah
13:53 yeah
13:56 in terms of sound quality i i mean every
13:58 word of what i of what i said in this
14:00 review i think that you would have to
14:05 spend ridiculous sums of money to
14:05 to
14:08 get an appreciable difference in say
14:10 sound quality or performance over
14:12 something like this
14:13 and when i say ridiculous sums of money
14:16 i mean the jc ones at 17 grand uh my old
14:19 krell evo 402e was 14 and a half
14:20 thousand dollars
14:22 or was it 16 i don't even remember
14:23 that's insane yeah that's a lot that's insane
14:25 insane
14:28 um and even when krell
14:31 made an amp i think was called the 275
14:34 evo275 same form factor same kind of
14:36 long compact and they made it um for
14:38 people to use for like surround channels
14:40 when they were starting to expand and
14:41 get height channels this was several
14:43 years ago
14:44 even that amp
14:47 uh which i believe was 275 watts per
14:48 channel so a little bit less than this one
14:49 one
14:50 was like
14:52 affordable for krell but it was like six
14:55 grand each six grand you know and it's
14:58 like i don't believe that that amp when
15:00 new was better than this and i had it i
15:02 don't believe that it was better now
15:04 again i'm going off memory but
15:07 yeah i just you have to really really
15:09 want to spend the money
15:12 i think to walk away and be like that
15:13 other amp is better
15:16 this maybe this will help people
15:18 understand where something like this is
15:20 going to fit best in their system or
15:22 when do you really need to start looking
15:25 for a separate amplifier
15:26 i do can you talk about that a little
15:29 bit because eve i mean i know you say
15:31 well you need more power which
15:32 which is
15:33 is
15:34 kind of an open-ended statement like
15:36 yeah what does that really mean the way
15:39 that i look at it and
15:41 apologies to any
15:43 uh electrical engineers out there in our
15:45 comments who are like well he's kind of right
15:46 right
15:49 think of an amplifier like torque on a car
15:50 car
15:53 not horsepower torque
15:56 and when you have a car that is low in
15:58 torque and you're driving along
16:00 and maybe you're going 30 and you
16:02 suddenly need to get to 60
16:04 and you step on the gas and the car
16:06 doesn't go anywhere
16:07 because it has low torque it doesn't
16:09 have that pull and so if you're in a
16:11 manual car sometimes you have to like
16:13 shift down if you're in an automatic you
16:14 got to hope it finds the right gear but
16:17 ultimately it comes down to torque
16:18 torque
16:21 a powerful amplifier and i'll just keep
16:24 the example on the hc1 here
16:27 has kind of torque throughout the rev
16:29 range so whether you're going straight
16:32 off the line or you're already at 75
16:33 miles an hour and you're trying to get
16:35 to a hundred
16:36 the power's there
16:37 you know what i mean it's like you've
16:41 got it in reserve and the problem is is that
16:42 that
16:44 95 of the time that you're listening to
16:46 music or watching movies more so with
16:49 music amps i don't care what they're
16:51 made of how much power they have they
16:54 are limping along they really are at any
16:56 given time you're probably only using
17:00 about 20 25 watts of power max however
17:01 however
17:04 when a musical passage gets complicated
17:07 or it gets dynamic let's say all of the
17:08 flutes in the symphony are playing
17:10 really loud and then suddenly here come
17:12 the timpani's and they just crash and
17:14 the volume level of what you're
17:15 listening to
17:19 goes from 60 db to 90 in an instant well
17:22 you need torque you need power you need that
17:23 that
17:26 on tap and when you only have 50 watts
17:28 even though 25 you're limping along just
17:31 fine you can cause an amp to clip bottom
17:34 out uh distort break you know what i
17:37 mean and when that happens all of that
17:39 power when the amplifier does that is
17:41 sent to your speakers and that can cause
17:43 your speaker drivers to burn out break
17:45 or you know blow your speakers
17:46 and so
17:49 more power even if you have efficient speakers
17:50 speakers
17:52 can protect
17:54 this from happening protect you your
17:56 investment your system from this
17:58 happening to it not to mention just when
18:00 you're listening you don't want those
18:02 crescendos to be full of distortion you
18:04 don't want those points of impact to
18:07 sound gritty grainy warbly
18:10 messy you want to be clean and pristine
18:12 and that's where more power comes in now
18:15 if you have say uh eclipse heritage
18:17 speaker that's like 102 db at one watt
18:19 and one meter
18:22 having a 25 watt amplifier a 50 watt
18:24 amplifier is kind of like having a 300
18:27 watt monoblock because it's just it's so
18:30 efficient with how it it applies the
18:32 power or how it can accept the power
18:35 um but for 90 of the mass-market
18:37 speakers out there on the market um
18:38 um
18:40 more power is typically always kind of a
18:42 good thing
18:44 awesome explanation i think that's
18:46 really going to help people i hope so i
18:47 hope so um
18:49 i feel like i've made a video about that
18:51 way way back maybe it's time to revisit
18:53 it but yeah um that's how i look at it
18:55 and that's kind of how
18:57 i know a lot of other people look at
18:59 awesome well i think we've i think we've
19:01 covered it okay
19:03 any anything else any last words
19:07 no no no i think i think we're good okay
19:09 so that's it for us today that is now
19:12 our review of the emotiva xp8 hc1 mono
19:14 amplifier what did you guys think let us
19:15 know down in the comments below and
19:17 while you're down there my question of
19:18 the day for you is this pretty simple
19:21 and that is what camp are you in are you
19:23 separates all the way or do you prefer
19:24 the simplicity of an integrated
19:27 amplifier let me know i am curious if
19:28 you like this video please do give it a
19:31 thumbs up like and subscribe go ahead
19:31 and ring that bell so that you're
19:34 notified when new videos come out uh if
19:35 you use any of the links that christy
19:38 leaves for you down below you give us a
19:39 thanks or you become a member of this
19:41 channel know that all of those ways help
19:43 to support this channel christy and i
19:45 thank you very much for doing that
19:46 follow me on instagram at
19:48 recoveringaudiophile and that is it for
19:50 us today so remember
19:52 the only person who has to like the
19:54 sound of your system is you so happy
19:55 listening everybody thank you so much
19:57 for watching and we'll see you on the
