Emotiva refresh basx amp

[Benni777]

So it looks like Emotiva has a refresh on their BasX amps 2,3,4,5,7 channel amps. Priced alright the 3 channel send alright would love to see some reviews on these

 

[MalVeauX]

Sweet, the 2 and 3 channel look great for the cost. I wanted to get two of the previous 2 channels, but since they are dropping a 3 channel in this range, I like that. The way I see it, why pay $1200 for 275 watts when you can pay $500 and get 140 watts. I mean, that's a 3 db difference at the end of the day. Obviously it depends on what you're driving and in what environment, but for efficient speakers in a large to small room, well.

Very best,

 

[slipperybidness]

Meh.....so now the old BasX line is discontinued and unsupported, normal recent Emo practices.

 

[Benni777]

Meh.....so now the old BasX line is discontinued and unsupported, normal recent Emo practices.

Good point

 

[MalVeauX]

A good point, however, at these prices, this is hardly something I worry terribly about having support 10 years later.

What's the time line on their product refreshes associated with discontinuation and dropping support?

It's completely anecdotal on my part, but all my BasX line I have from 10 years ago is still working perfectly and are always on to this day.

Very best,

 

[slipperybidness]

A good point, however, at these prices, this is hardly something I worry terribly about having support 10 years later.

What's the time line on their product refreshes associated with discontinuation and dropping support?

Very best,

That's my concern with Emotiva--Their product life cycles seem incredibly short! It just doesn't make sense to me. I have had my eye on Emotiva for many years now, and own a USP-1 and XDA-1, and a set of the slim line BS speakers. I have never understood their silly short product life cycles.

 

[MalVeauX]

That's my concern with Emotiva--Their product life cycles seem incredibly short! It just doesn't make sense to me. I have had my eye on Emotiva for many years now, and own a USP-1 and XDA-1, and a set of the slim line BS speakers. I have never understood their silly short product life cycles.

Right, but how short? A time line would be interesting.

I don't think its silly if it's 10 years. Every 2 or 3 years, sure, I agree. But 10+ years? That's not nuts. Entire culture change happens in that time frame.

For their flagship units over $1k~$2k, I get it, I'd want some security there.

But the BasX line is budget entry level stuff. Yet, there's very little out there in this price range with the output and they don't have "Pyle" written on the side for half the price. It's hard to find anything in the $400~500 range with any kind of output, let alone multi-channel. I'm no brand loyalist or anything. It's just rather interesting to see a 3 channel amp for $500 that isn't just 50 watts.... its 140 watts. Will it blow up? Maybe. But I'm hopeful because that's a great option for people who are not needing 200~300 watts and want a 3 channel amp for their front stage but also don't want to spend $1.2~2k for it, or go stereo and mono blocks or just all mono blocks, etc. Great to have options, especially affordable ones these days.

I realize there's no free lunch. So I'm just curious at this point.

That said, if anyone knows of some 120~160 watt per channel at 8 ohm amplifiers that could be setup for 3 channels in whatever configuration for $500, I'm all ears. Even if I had to build it from a kit or something (as long as it had a case, good lord).

Very best,

 

[ryanosaur]

I was interested in some of their gear when I was shopping a few years ago. It seems now I have seen stuff turnover in a 2-5 yr range.
I liken it to an ADHD product development team or ownership.
Hell, their flagship Processor (RMC-1) still has never delivered on their promises some 3-years later while they have release 3 other processor options at cheaper price points. All instead of getting one working product, they have 4 with differing levels of competency.
It seems they were really known for their Amps early on. For the BasX line, there are many people that swear by them. It will be interesting to see how this new lineup performs.

 

[MalVeauX]

I may have it wrong, but in my mind, going from 50 watt amps to 200 watt amps is just a 6db jump in power. Psychoacoustically, its not perceived as twice as loud. And there's really no options out there to go from a 50 watt amp to a 400~500 watt amp to get to that +10db range. Not sustained, but at least just as peak for those transient moments in audio that call for a spike in a range for a brief moment at a higher volume per the recording. There's just nothing economical in that range that I've found. There are 200 watt monoblocks, but that's again not even getting to that +10db coming from a 50 watt amp. And if you were already on a 100 watt, well, it's just a +3db increase, for a lot of cost increase ($400 per amp, or $1200 per three, to get +3db).

So what I am looking at, from this angle, is that say you have a 50 watt amp(s) and you wanted to have a new amplifier with more headroom for transients but you didn't want to have to buy a 500 watt monoblock for over $2k or more just to do that, per speaker, to have +10db headroom basically. Instead, if you had an option to go from 50 watts to 140 watts, you're getting a +3db headroom right away along with maybe 1db more, at $500, for three channels in your L/C/R. While it's also not that +10db headroom, it's +3~4db headroom at $500 with a warranty for 3 years. And that's assuming you were maxing a 50 watt amp. If you were only using 15~30 watts on your 50 watt amp, then something that can get to 140 watts on all those channels is giving you that +10db headroom potentially (14 watts to 140 watts).

Again maybe my thinking is flawed. Then again, if all you needed was 15~30 watts per speaker, then the AVR is already doing that with room to spare, so no amp is needed at all anyways unless you just wanted to expand out and spend money, etc.

I am currently viewing it from the paradigm of something like a X3700H with pre-pro to be able to do 11 channels of processing with supplied amplifiers instead of going all in on a 11 channel native processor that doesn't require an additional amplifier. Being able to put your mains on a fair amplifier and let the AVR do all the surrounds (8 channels 4 surround 4 atmos) for $500 sounds like a nice option, $1500 total for that. Leaves headroom for all.

For context, I use a lot of 50 watt amps. I have several. They do the job. They scream in all my rooms, I've yet to max one in my theater nor on my 2 channel setups. Some of them bridge to 150 watts, and I played with that for a while, but ultimately it wasn't needed. I realize I don't need anything more powerful and an AVR will handle everything, both mathematically speaking from calculating it and from guts-level stuff just experiencing what real 50 watts can do and having lots of room left on the volume to get into the loud listening levels. Needless to say, bridging came with compromise. So I don't do it. The prospect of having 150 watt blocks for $125 each though was too promising not to play with it a bit. But ultimately not something to bother with. But... a 140 watt x 3 channel at 8ohm amp for $500? That's quite literally the same thing as those $125 50 watt amps bridged, but minus all the compromise of a bridged amp seeing a 4ohm load or worse. Sort of fills in where I was looking to be, much better than singles, and there's just nothing else less than $1200 that I can find that will do anything like this no matter the numbers involved.

Personally if I was going to spend $1200 on three channels, right now, I think I would do it with Outlaw 200 watt monoblocks instead of Emotiva. The power difference is ierrelevant, those are just generous numbers from Emotiva, but the Outlaw is being conservative likely, so they're probably equivalent in terms of actual power output. I just like the idea of the blocks because if one were to go bad, the whole thing isn't having to be shipped off or replaced and you can survive. But, I just don't want to spend $1200 on amps that I in reality have absolutely no need for (knowing a 50 watter has plenty of room in my rooms currently). All of this in the context of my current space, I have no need, but my future space in the new house is going to be larger, so I might actually (big might) need a bit more.

Very best,

 

[PENG]

That said, if anyone knows of some 120~160 watt per channel at 8 ohm amplifiers that could be setup for 3 channels in whatever configuration for $500, I'm all ears. Even if I had to build it from a kit or something (as long as it had a case, good lord).

Very best,

That's a fair point, and it seems totally valid for those using AV preamp processors but not for AVR users who just want more "power". Even the entry level AVRs that come with pre outs would be rated 100 W into 8 Ohm and many measured well above 120 W 8 Ohms, 150 W 4 Ohms at 0.1% THD and higher at 1% THD.

I do think there is a case for such low cost Emo amps though, that is, for those who need to add a 2 channel amp in order to go from 7.1 to 5.1.4 (just an example), or for zone 2 etc. Just not for someone who doesn't need an extra amp but want to gain "power", or the so called take some load off the AVR.

 

[MalVeauX]

That's a fair point, and it seems totally valid for those using AV preamp processors but not for AVR users who just want more "power". Even the entry level AVRs that come with pre outs would be rated 100 W into 8 Ohm and many measured well above 120 W 8 Ohms, 150 W 4 Ohms at 0.1% THD and higher at 1% THD.

I do think there is a case for such low cost Emo amps though, that is, for those who need to add a 2 channel amp in order to go from 7.1 to 5.1.4 (just an example), or for zone 2 etc. Just not for someone who doesn't need an extra amp but want to gain "power", or the so called take some load off the AVR.

Totally agree, an AVR will already likely cover all of this up to that level. For non-theater as mentioned above, its another good option for a 2 channel setup for someone who's just doing music or any audio without a receiver and just want a basic setup, or prefer an all analog setup, etc. I don't have any hard to drive speakers, and so far, in all my spaces a 50 watt amp already puts them loud enough with room to spare. So I know my AVR's are able to deliver even more, so I have no lack of headroom currently in my current spaces. My future space might be different in the new house, but I doubt it will be a major difference.

My use will be both the expanded 11 channel processor AVR with discreet amp (though again I find a 50 watt amp is plenty so far) and for 2 channel music listening (currently using a BasX series two channel amp for that with my Philharmonics, strictly music listening, tube pre-amp output based DAC, but no vinyl so I'm not pure analog, but I like a dedicated 2 channel music setup). So far, I have no use for these new amps. Again, 50 watts seems to be plenty for my space and my sensitive speakers. But $500 to have unnecessary transient headroom instead of $1200 for the same magic I don't need? So much easier to swallow!

At the end of the day, I think for the cost, it's better to simply get more efficient speakers than it is to get gobs of output amplifiers that can fail. Speakers can last a lot longer and ultimately that's the more important key item secondary to room response. Instead of $1500 in amps, I think it's probably better to just get some PSA sensitive loudspeakers that will run off 1 watt basically.

Very best,