I ignore Regas’ environmentally responsible blurb in the manual to turn my Aura off after my listening session. I too leave my unit powered 24/7 and it does indeed take a considerable amount of time to really settle in and sing. I should be ashamed of myself for being climate change unfriendly.
Not really.
I’m shameless.
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I think at 15W we can afford to be “irresponsible” in terms of environmental impact!
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I was looking at the manual as well (not something audiophiles generally do) and noted:
“This Rega pre-amplifier circuit has been carefully designed to work with a minimal “warm up” period. Some manufacturers and retailers may recommend leaving amplifiers permanently switched on. Rega cannot condone such practice in these environmentally sensitive times. We would recommend that your Rega amplifier is always switched off after use. Full sound quality is attained after less than ten minutes (a process speeded up by playing music).“
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She is a character, loves her youtube mouse videos!
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LOL 
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Green laser eyes.
Yikes, does that cat look like that all year or just around Halloween?
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My excitement with the aura has not waned at all. As Dirk and Owlsalum noted, leaving it on releases its full sound quality.
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Hmm, must all be very dark.
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I did a thing…
I’ve been wanting to put some gear on the side wall (if not all of it at some point minus the amp and TV). When we first moved in to the new house, I tried this setup but kept getting a bunch of buzzing coming through the speakers clearly heard at the listening seat even though I’m running fully balanced, using two pairs of pro-grade Pig Hog 30 ft XLR cables. Not being able to solve the issue, I just put everything on the front wall using standard 1 meter Nordost and Wireworld XLRS. Even then, when getting up close to the tweeters, you could still a very slight buzzing coming through.
Well yesterday, I tried moving things around again and stripped the system down to only the preamp, amps and speakers. Again, I had the buzz. I tried different wall outlets, and even lifted the ground on one end or both ends with no effect.
I swapped the Schiit Freya+ for my Topping A90 headphone amp which is also fully balanced and can be switched over to preamp only mode. Tried that and I still had the buzz coming through the system, so moved the Freya+ back into the system. As a last ditch effort, I pulled the NuPrime STA-9 amps and put my Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amp into the mix. The result?.. Pure silence! I mean pure silence as in I had to double check to make sure I actually had the speakers connected to the amp! No buzz, no hum, no hiss, no nothing! And that’s with my ears right up against the tweeters practically!
I connected the Bifrost 2 DAC with another pair of Pig Hog 30 ft XLR’s, still no noise. Connected the Sony Blu-ray, the Raspberry Pi4, the Roku Ultra, the TV, powered everything up… Still completely silent!
So it seems that either the balanced inputs on the NuPrime amps aren’t wired correctly, or they are not differential inputs, OR they are not true balanced inputs at all. Either way, they are out of the system, the Emotiva is back in the system. And being able to hear both amps in the same room and system configuration, surprisingly the Emotiva has more and tighter bass (had to turn the gains down a touch on the subs), a more refined top end while remaining airy and spacious, and an ever so slightly fuller midrange. Imaging seems to be about the same, though stage depth and width is a little better. BTW, the Emotiva amp does in fact utilize true balanced differential inputs.
Who knew that Emotiva was able to create an amplifier (a massive 75 pound amplifier I might add) that is capable of exceeding the performance of a pair of amplifiers at double to price (two amps). The NuPrime STA-9’s were $900 each new, the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 was also $900 new.
Anywho, on with some pics…
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If the Gen. 2 Emotiva stereo amp has “old-fashioned”, toroidal components, I am not surprised.
My XPA-1 (Gen. 1) 500wpc monos are getting a bit long in the tooth, but I think they still qualify as giant killers. YMMV.
“Enjoy the silence.”
-- Depeche Mode
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Exactly what I am struggling with right now, but still haven’t solved my problem. To add a layer of difficulty, I have a servo control unit between my preamp and amps. Disconnect everything except amps to speakers, silence. Add the SCU, and I get a bad ground loop. Three different electrical circuits involved only makes the fun all that better.
Yes, that massive toroidal transformer mounted up front. Emotiva definitely did something right with these older amps. I tried out my brother’s XPA-2 Gen 3 for a few months, swapping both amps in and out of the system over that time, and every time, my older Gen 2 sounded better. Kind of like going from a Bryston (his Gen 3) to a McIntosh (my Gen 2), maybe not so drastic of a difference, but certainly noticeable nonetheless.
And yes, the Violator album. Still their best album, as well as still their best selling I believe.
That’s my take as well. I have not personally heard the new topology they deployed with the Gen 3’s and beyond (the modular approach they took). However, the dearth of raving reviews like they got with the older, big transformer amps makes me think that the additional power they specify now and the flexibility the modular amps provide do not equal better sound.
Curious as to whether anyone else here has experience with Emotiva amps, generally; and the two approaches they took (before and now) to their amplifier design.
Regards.
Have you checked your installation wiring and made sure that:
- they have not swapped phase and neutral for the group(s) of outlets to which the buzzing components were connected
- the ground wire is not connected to neutral somewhere in the distribution panels
- the ground is clean
I think that the reason for Emotiva equipment not buzzing is that the may have lifted their entire internal circuits including DC-mass level from external ground.
But that the real problem is the ground and/or neutral connection in your home.
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I have. I have several different outlet testers and all of them read the same, that the wiring is correct. Not to mention as one of my tests, I connected the entire system to a single outlet and still had the buzzing.
One thing I have noticed though, the NuPrime amps have a ground pin in the IEC socket, the Emotiva does not. With that being said, even when using cheater plugs on the NuPrime amps, the buzz was still there.
Wiring is OK and consistent.
Another possibility is that the ground has too high of an impedance to earth or loops which prohibit the dissipation of the noise to earth, which consequently contaminates the neutral.
None of these issues are easy to measure.
Neutral is in most domestic utilities connected to ground at the secondary side of the feeding transformer. Ground is often also connected to one or more electrodes to earth. These connections are outside your home, that you can have checked by your utilities provider. Sometimes ground electrodes are in your own yard, you could check the interconnections. If the connections / wiring is loose or the soil in your yard is extremely dry, that might be reasons of high impedance to earth. Wetting the soil or driving additional electrodes into the earth might help, but additional electrodes can also open another can of worms. Grounding can be a extremely complex and non-logic subject.
Apparently the Emotivas solve the noise issue and you like it, there you go, have fun😀
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