Emotiva UPA-500 & UPA-200 Ultra Series Amps Preview

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
While some might eschew the lower power ratings of the Emotiva Ultra Series, we dare you to find a sub $400 five channel amplifier with 80 watts per channel or two channel amp with 125 watts per channel that are stable into 4 ohms. Put behind these power claims the pedigree of the Emotiva name, their history of making affordable yet powerful amps, and it is a nigh impossible task. With chassis no taller than 4 1/16", these are amps that are begging for installation just about anywhere. Pair the two channel UPA-200 with the Emotiva USP-1 Stereo Preamp and you've got a dedicated two channel system for less than $800 (priced during the current sale).


Discuss "Emotiva UPA-500 & UPA-200 Ultra Series Amps Preview" here. Read the article.
 
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npsquire1

Enthusiast
I really look forward to a review of the UPA-200. Hopefully the reviewer will use it with budget-conscious ($300-700) speakers, as well as some higher-performing speakers. I know it would be difficult, but it would be great to see this (reasonably) budget receiver strut its stuff throughout speakers in various affordability ranges.
 
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templemaners

Senior Audioholic
I know it would be difficult, but it would be great to see this (reasonably) budget receiver strut its stuff throughout speakers in various affordability ranges.
It's an amplifier, not a receiver.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Maybe it is an illusion, but the PS in the UPA-200 looks proportionally larger in diameter to my eye!

UPA-200


UPA-500
 
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npsquire1

Enthusiast
I know that, but any receiver, amplifier, speaker, etc. will more than likely color the sound, even if it's minimal. Each receiver is said to have it's own sound, why wouldn't an amplifier be any different? Anyway, it would still be interesting to see how well it handled various speakers and their variances in impedance at various frequencies.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Each receiver is said to have it's own sound...
Most people here (including myself) believe any competent SS amp (or receiver) will sound the same as long as you are not exceeding it's capabilities.
 
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npsquire1

Enthusiast
I'm not saying an amplifier should have coloration, but if you remember the "Carver Challenge," where Bob Carver replicated the sound of an unknown amplifier with his solid state M1, they can be tuned/tweaked to produce different sounds. Just as people believe that speaker cables make a difference, so too do others believe that amplifiers sound different.
 
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PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I'm not saying an amplifier should have coloration, but if you remember the "Carver Challenge," where Bob Carver replicated the sound of an unknown amplifier with his solid state M1, they can be tuned/tweaked to produce different sounds. Just as people believe that speaker cables make a difference, so too do others believe that amplifiers sound different.
You may be right about some amplifiers have their own sound "color". I don't look for such amps and they are probably hard to find anyway. I only buy those that amplifier the input signal linearly, with distortions low enough to be inaudible to me and has a flat fequency response over the audible range, regardless of the load (speakers) impedance and V/I phase angles.
 
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Gordonj

Gordonj

Full Audioholic
Most people here (including myself) believe any competent SS amp (or receiver) will sound the same as long as you are not exceeding it's capabilities.
I do not believe in that thought process. Having been in the pro-audio and recording Industry for well over 25 years I know and have experienced, every day of my career, that everything, including amps, color the sound that is going through it, like it or believe it or not...:eek:

And yes I know that we have been over this many times here......

Gordon
 
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PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I do not believe in that thought process. Having been in the pro-audio and recording Industry for well over 25 years I know and have experienced, every day of my career, that everything, including amps, color the sound that is going through it, like it or believe it or not...:eek:

And yes I know that we have been over this many times here......

Gordon
indeed, many times before...

all amps color the sound? "like it or believe it or not"... "NOT"..

all amps sound the same? As above

The problem is the word "all"..., remove, or not use that word (as you have done) and perhaps subsitute it with whatever you like, you could get the answer you want to hear or at least making it not as easy for others to contradict/challeng you.:D
 
Gordonj

Gordonj

Full Audioholic
indeed, many times before...

all amps color the sound? "like it or believe it or not"... "NOT"..

all amps sound the same? As above

The problem is the word "all"..., remove, or not use that word (as you have done) and perhaps subsitute it with whatever you like, you could get the answer you want to hear or at least making it not as easy for others to contradict/challeng you.:D
I did not say all, but you can if you would like ;)

And I know you won't though :D

But if i should not use the word "all" nor should anyone stating the opposite for he same reasons...

Back to the beach now!

Gordon
 
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KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I do not believe in that thought process. Having been in the pro-audio and recording Industry for well over 25 years I know and have experienced, every day of my career, that everything, including amps, color the sound that is going through it, like it or believe it or not...:eek:

And yes I know that we have been over this many times here......

Gordon
What do you believe is the source of this coloration?
I don't know, when you say " everything, including amps" that sounds a lot like "all amps".
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
You all are going to get us into trouble again talking off topic in an Emotiva preview. :eek:

:D
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
I did not say all, but you can if you would like ;)

And I know you won't though :D

But if i should not use the word "all" nor should anyone stating the opposite for he same reasons...

Back to the beach now!

Gordon
I did not say you said "all" so no apology:D. I am sorry, however, for not being clear. Instead of saying "as you have done..." meaning as you have removed the word 'all' from the often quoted "all amps sound the same..." statement, I should have said something like "as you have avoided, or skipped, or not used the word "all". Wow, doesn't seem like I am making it any clearer, but WTH.. Suffice to say you and I have absolutely no quarel in this topic.
 
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PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
What do you believe is the source of this coloration?
I don't know, when you say " everything, including amps" that sounds a lot like "all amps".
I didn't read it that way but now that you mentioned it, yeah one could read into it that way though as he indicated he didn't mean it that way. That is, I understood him correctly in the first place.

Bottom line is, some amps can sound different than others while many amps (including the Emos, I think) designed to accurately amplify the input signal (those I would aim for) will sound alike under certain stated/defined conditions. I am going to stop right here before digging a deeper hole for myself.:D
 
Gordonj

Gordonj

Full Audioholic
I didn't read it that way but now that you mentioned it, yeah one could read into it that way though as he indicated he didn't mean it that way. That is, I understood him correctly in the first place.

Bottom line is, some amps can sound different than others while many amps (including the Emos, I think) designed to accurately amplify the input signal (those I would aim for) will sound alike under certain stated/defined conditions. I am going to stop right here before digging a deeper hole for myself.:D
I love you guys!!:D

And it is hard to beat the "bang-for-the-buck" of he EMO amps. They have really done a great job getting a great product for less money without sacrifcing Hifi. It is hard to beat the UPA amp and preamp for under $800!

Gordon
 
Gordonj

Gordonj

Full Audioholic
I did not say you said "all" so no apology:D. I am sorry, however, for not being clear. Instead of saying "as you have done..." meaning as you have removed the word 'all' from the often quoted "all amps sound the same..." statement, I should have said something like "as you have avoided, or skipped, or not used the word "all". Wow, doesn't seem like I am making it any clearer, but WTH.. Suffice to say you and I have absolutely no quarel in this topic.
And heres to another Corona and lime on the beach!!!:D;)

Gordon
 
H

heroesunplugged

Audioholic Intern
The UPA-200 is slightly heavier so it may be more than an illusion. I would have thought exactly the opposite given the extra parts that have to go into the 5 channel UPA-500. The 500 is also rated @ 450 watts Max & the 200 is @ 350 for the ps when viewing the back panel. Although after looking into the manual the 500 is rated at 350 instead of the 450 as pictured and the weight is also showing a difference from the info provided on the site vs the manual. Site states 22.9 lbs and manual 24 lbs. Not sure what to make of it. The difference we are noticing could be due to a difference in aspect ratio/distance from the amp when the pics were taken too.

One note is that the Input Sensitivity on the 200 is 1.1 V vs 850 mV for the 500. Will/could this give the 200 a slight advantage for perceived loudness/dynamics with the same amount of input from the source? The gain structure for the amp section are both stated as 29 dB (3 dB less than their more expensive/more powerful X-series and can't find the input sensitivity for Xs either). How much can 250 mV make? Possibly an off-topic issue so I will apologize in advance if this is unacceptable.
 
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gp4Jesus

Audiophyte
I would love to hear how either would stack up against...

...my Hafler XL-280, Belles One, or Rotel RB-985 all circa mid-eighties hardware.

I find the Haf & Rotel imaging & sound/tonal quality quite similar. The Belles seems to image better, w/noticably warmer, more solid bottom, though not as clean in the upper mids & lower treble.

I used a Rotel RSP-1068 in 2 ch mode; a Sony DVD player to play the numerous GRP & Sheffield titles.

Hardly a reference front end but it fills the bill.

My $.02. Tony
 
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