Emotiva XPA-5 Amplifier

I have always used a complete audio/video receiver (currently a Pioneer Elite SC-07) and never separates or had a separate amp so I did some research of amps under $1k for my 5 channel speaker setup that are 4ohm impedance. I ultimately decided on the XPA-5 made my Emotiva for not only being in my price range but also for their rave reviews. 

First, I should get the funny "I'm not really this dumb, am I?" story out of the way. So after getting everything connected and running MCACC on my SC-07 Elite, I popped in the Blu-ray of John Adams. I'm right in the middle of watching this mini-series so I have an idea of what it sounded like on my SC-07. I thought it sounded marginally better than what I remembered so this initial feeling of regret fell upon me. Then I inserted a UK import BD called "The North Face". It's about German climbers in the 30's who try to climb the Eiger mountain that everyone thought was unclimbable. It has really good audio and video. Well, the soundtrack just didn't envelop me like I thought it would. I thought to myself, do I have everything connected firmly? I checked all the connections - banana plugs looked nice and tight. Then I meandered over to my surrounds and noticed there wasn't any sound coming from them at all. I played the movie for a while and nothing. And I knew there should be some spots where they were supposed to be active. As I was checking my connections again, it hit me....I plugged my RCA's for surrounds into the surround backs on my SC-07 instead of SL and SR. 
As soon as I made the switch, the soundfield came alive. Wow. Incredible. Now it totally felt like I was on that mountain with those climbers. The score just came through with such clarity and detail. I could tell the speakers were now receiving the juice they required. They funny thing is that I ran the MCACC calibration on the 07 after connecting everything and somehow it detected that I was using SR and SL, yet the RCA's were connected to both surround backs??? Weird. I checked the MCACC settings and it set proper distance speaker level. I reran MCACC just to make sure everything was set properly once this dumb moment was corrected.

So after this dumb moment, I was able to truly test out some material. All HT movies at this point and Mad Men Blu-ray Season 1. That John Adams Blu-ray that sounded only marginally better because I had surrounds connected wrong now sounds unbelievable. I think the biggest difference overall is just the added ambiance I'm hearing. The entire soundfield is more alive and I feel like I can crank it up without distorting but still keep it low when I want to and not lose a thing. Same thing with Mad Men - I am now hearing ambient sounds and effects that I didn't hear before. Master and Commander was an unreal experience. The opening battle with cannons firing and ship blasts were literally rattling the windows. I just can't imagine a better aural experience.

Now I just want to go back and relive my entire BD collection.