Mark Levinson 333.5 vs Emotiva XPR-1 Monoblocks

@ french Fries, Hi, I love my Krell fpb 700cx amp!, sounds excellent to me!, one of the best mid-range sounds I have ever heard from solid state, the cx line is quite a different animal of a amp than the fpb, fpb-c amps all together!, seems better in every way, I owned an original fpb 200 years ago, I have only owned this 700cx for 14 months, I love this amp so much, I sent it to krell to be completly renewed in every way!, Its only 8 years old, I wanted to do it now why my family can afford to do so, instead of doing so a few years from now!,, cheers!

@ Levchappy, A wise decision on keeping the levinson 333.5 over emotiva amps!, Kudos, you may keep your user name here deservenly!, LOL!,, Happy listening!

I agree Bo1972, Pass Labs is superior to Levinson, and even though far form cheap, their equipment competes with other brand costing much, much more.

Dave_72

Is it true that Pass amps run extremely hot. What was the last best Levinson amp that you've owned for at least 2 years?

Have you ever owned somewhat recent Lamm amp? If so, how does it compare to the Levinson 333.5 and The Pass amp?

Levchappy,

I know what you mean. It really sucks when experimenting with an upgrade means getting rid of an existing piece of equipment.

On another note, and not to get off on another rant about this vs. that, but I took a look at the specs on the Sherbourn amp that you are interested in.

Assuming that the manufacturer's published specs are on the optimistic side, the specs do not instill much confidence with regard to the amp's abilities. Most notable to me are the power ratings at 8 and 4 ohms. The 4 ohm rating is less than 50% more than it is at 8 ohms and they clearly state that the minimum recommended load impedance is 4 ohms.

Again, I don't know how this amp is going to handle your speakers with the 4 ohm nominal impedance, with it dropping down near 2 ohms a lot of the time.

Honestly, and again, just based on the published specs, I think I'd consider keeping the Levinson and getting into an Emotiva 5 channel amp. That way you can keep the Levinson for two channel and back that up with the other 5 channel amp for home theatre.

I'm only saying this as a personal thing, because I've never been wild about Acurus amps. They aren't for everyone.