Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Crackling speakers

Ok I'm confused. Do you have the XPA2 or the A1400... Or both? I can't imagine why you would have both unless you upgraded to the A1400 & just haven't returned the XPA2 yet so you're comparing them.

Also, someone here will have to explain to me why a pre-amp wouldn't be able to handle loud levels of volume if an outboard amp is handling all the power needs? I mean I thought that was the whole theory behind separates... push your speakers with an external amp so that all your reciever has to worry about is decoding, formating, upscaling & the like.

With an amp like the A1400 (or the XPA2 for that matter) I simply can't imagine why there would be any clipping/power issues at all?

Hi Micah,

There are matters of compatibility between a separate preamp and a power amp that don't occur in an AV receiver, where the engineer/designer knows in advance what the gain of the amplifier section will be and how much output (voltage) that the preamp section of the AV receiver will need to deliver to the amp section to allow it to reach full output.

When you run a separate preamp or the preamp section of an AV receiver, it's possible to run the volume control of the preamp too high, driving the preamp output into distortion before it reaches the separate power amplifier. Although preamp outputs should be standardized at about 1 volt, some preamps may greatly exceed that. I once measured a Sony device that put out 18 volts at maximum rotation of the volume control. That sort of output would drive the input of a power amplifier into distortion. The latter is not the same as the output of the amplifier clipping.
It's just overloading the input circuit of the power amplifier.

What is the setting of the volume control on the preamp or AV receiver when you are driving the power amplifier?

Regards,

Alan

Melvin - he has the A1400 now. XPA-2 was returned after it continuously shut down on him while driving the M80s. Read the saga here.

Melvin??? Baha ha ha haha ha!!! No no no my good friend, I am not Melvin. Melvin White (aka the Joker) is the guy I quoted in my signature box.

This sort of thing keeps happening! lmao

Whatever you say Melvin.

Hey, I remember that line!

Don't laugh or Calvin will come in here and knock you guys around!

What's this the Melvin and Calvin show

It's a surrealistic comedy.

Oh, didn't I tell you? That's my new thing, calling people by whatever name they put in their signature... if you've got a name in your signature, and it's not yours, you've been warned.

Jason

Uh oh.