[Rclark]

 Supposedly is officially (as in for real this time) in the final stages of preproduction and according to the CEO, reportedly on his Facebook page, the unit is ready for a May launch.

 Is anyone anticipating this preamp?

[JohnR]

No... what's interesting about it?

[Rclark]

Well, it's a bang for the buck piece, but it's supposedly going to have giant slayer performance, as they say, this is their reference preamp. Probably their most serious piece of gear, I think.

 Its been in development for a very long time, probably over four years, and from what I've learned people think this will be a really good audiophile preamp.
 
 Here, you can see innards and learn what's known :

http://emonatics.com/XSP-1.shtml

 I know it's been shown recently and also just wondered what people who'd heard it thought of it.

[JohnR]

For $900, my question would be (for you) what features does it have that you are looking for? When it comes down to it, a preamp is switching, volume control, gain, and low output impedance.

[Rclark]

$600 preorder price, I think. The bass management would be nice, and it can control seperate subs. And sorry, that site isn't very good, but the pics are good quality.

I'd like to see if a preamp can improve the quality of my sound. They have a great return policy so I think I might preorder one.

A lot of people assume they must have shoddy construction and parts but you can see in the pictures they are really nice under the hood, it's the same with all their stuff. They don't use fancy boutique capacitors and such, but they don't use junk. Good stuff. I dunno, I really like the sound from my ERC-2. Neutral and revealing. Sounds incredible though my ldr. I imagine this preamp will be the same.
 
Probably the last piece of Emotiva gear I'd consider unless they made a killer digital player.

If I decide I wanna try something even better, I can sell it for a nominal loss, as usual (resold two of their pieces, with little effort and for high resale value).

[JohnR]

What would you do with the LDR?

[Rclark]

I would run the preamp at full volume into the ldr or I would bypass the volume if that's somehow possible. But I would still control volume with the ldr. Yes, despite now having a remote  .

[MoonUnit]

Here, you can see innards and learn what's known : http://emonatics.com/XSP-1.shtml

From the pictures, it seems really complex internally for a two channel preamp. I wonder how that might affect the sound. Where did you hear about the discounted pre-order price?

[timind]

I would run the preamp at full volume into the ldr or I would bypass the volume if that's somehow possible. But I would still control volume with the ldr. Yes, despite now having a remote  .

Excuse my ignorance but, what's an LDR?

[JohnR]

Light-dependent resistor, a type of volume control (aka passive preamp)

[Levi]

It reminds me of Adcom or Outlaw audio.  They are great value mid-Fi components.

No offense to the OP, it is not going be a giant killer.  Bring it to my place in NYC for a quick AB testing. 

[srb]

It has multiple balanced XLR inputs and outputs that are directly preamp board mounted, but it you believe that input wiring quality and routing is of importance, you might be disappointed that all RCA inputs and outputs (including the phono inputs) are wired via computer ribbon cable.
 
Steve

[Rclark]

Not sure if that's the final cut internally, those pictures are super old, and of one of the prototypes.

and giant killer or no, it should be good enough to see an improvement if preamps do indeed improve things in my system.

 I can sell it and move up from there. Or get it modded and hotrodded. It sure is nice looking on the outside.

[Rclark]

Oh and rca's are moot as I will be taking advantage of balanced connections at that point. However I don't think they'd use ribbon in those other sections if it wasn't entirely sufficient. They certainly know what they're doing.

[Rclark]

From the pictures, it seems really complex internally for a two channel preamp. I wonder how that might affect the sound. Where did you hear about the discounted pre-order price?

I've preordered twice and they always have a discount. $600 is the rumor. 

[Rclark]

It reminds me of Adcom or Outlaw audio.  They are great value mid-Fi components.

...if this makes the output from my ldr sound even better, as Doug S suggests a good preamp will do, (although he recommends tubes), then this will be a most decidedly hifi piece.

Cost as a quality determiner is now a wildcard. Look at the Ncores. Would anyone have predicted a $1300 pair of monoblocks to compete with and potentially beat the most expensive stuff out there?

[Levi]

Sure. Whatever. It's your ears and money.

Enjoy it!

[Rclark]

no, seriously!

[sebrof]

I would run the preamp at full volume into the ldr or I would bypass the volume if that's somehow possible. But I would still control volume with the ldr. Yes, despite now having a remote  .

Interesting.
Why would you not just use one or the other?

[Rclark]

 I just want to try it.

  Doug S. Has a nice active preamp and an LDR and he runs them both together. I don't know that it will be better in this situation, but he suggests that you get some of the benefits of an active preamp while doing it.

 There will definitely be good "synergy" (whatever that means) because I'm already running the ERC-2 and the combo with the LDR works fantastically. So Emotiva cdp into Emotica pre shouldn't ruing the party I wouldn't think.

 I did read a report where a guy had an SAS10A and he just completely replaced it with just the LDR alone. So maybe I'll find the LDR remains superior on its own. Maybe it works better with SS (LDR/pre combo)? We'll see I guess.

 Emotiva already has several pre's out, and you can get a USP-1 right now, which is considered to be a pretty decent preamp. You gotta think the XSP will be a significant step up, and I think they are very serious about it as a respectable pre.