I owned Emotiva XPA-1 monoblocks, an XPA-5 (5 channel amps) and their ERC-1 CD player. I first purchased the XPA-5 and it sounded pretty good so I ordered the other two. The first time I watched a movie with the THX intro to Stars Wars the mono blocks shut down. I should note that my preamp's x-over was set to 60hz. I reset the amps by disconnecting the power and they turned them back on. I then changed the crossover to 80 hz and did not have the same problem again.
I also began hearing a pinging sound from the mono's which bothered me when listening to the amps at a low volume. The one amp did this frequently so I contacted Emotiva. I sent the amp in and they stated that this was the normal expansion and contraction of the amps heat sinks. I asked if they would send me a new one as I didn't have this problem with the XPA-5 and my other XPA-1 only did this occasionally and I felt I could live with it. They sent me a new one which was better but still "pinged" on occasion like my other XPA-1.
Not long after this my ERC-1 CD player would not eject a CD. I found if I layed the cd player on its side it would eject. I figured since it was only $399 it was not worth returning. I can't use the cd player anymore.
A while later my XPA-1's blew fuses. I called Emotiva and they told me how to replace them and they worked fine for a while then it happened again,,,, and then again. After two years I finally got rid of them.
I have in the past owned gear from Sony, Citation, Acurus, Classe, Anthem, Lexicon, Pass Labs and others and have rarely had problems with the exception of the Sony stuff from 1989. I just can't understand why the Emotiva XPA-5 worked so well. I'm not sure if many others had problems, maybe it was just me. I should note that for the price they did sound very good. The only other thing that bothered me was a whistling sound from the tweeters when I turned off the XPA-1's...this also happened with my Acurus amps years ago when I owned Infinity RS 8 Kappa's.
