Emotiva's amp line up

[KEW]

I was looking at Emotiva's line-up and it strikes me as strange that their 2 channel amps jump from $350 for the 125WPC UPA-200 to $800 for the 300WPC XPA-2.

The UPA-200 is not a major upgrade from many receivers; and while the XPA-2 is a solid offering for price and performance, it is overkill for many people's budgets. It seems that the true sweet spot falls in between these two amps.

With the modular design, it would be simple to pull one of the channels from the XPA-3 and have a ~$600 200WPC amp which would sell as good as (probably better than) anything they make!

Emotiva must have considered this and decided not to do it. Any ideas on why?

 

[jcl]

They may not sell as many 2 channel amps. For home theater setups many will opt for the xpa 3 with 200 w/ch and $100 less. That's still probably a good step up in power from a avr; I would think 300 w/ch is overkill for most.

 

[Steve81]

Emotiva must have considered this and decided not to do it. Any ideas on why?

My guess is that from the UPA-2's 125wpc to the hypothetical 200wpc wouldn't represent much of an upgrade in terms of raw output about 2dB. 125wpc to 300wpc is about 3.8dB for reference.

 

[TheWarrior]

I've got the previous generation UPA-1, 200 watt mono block, and it is leaps and bounds over any receiver I've heard.

Its not so much the raw output, I like my hearing thank you, but its the ability to have that much energy stored. When you have general dialogue and then an explosion, you should be in awe of the presentation.

Think about the cost of these amps. That is a mere 2 channels of amplification. It does absolutely nothing else. So thats a $300 transformer with $50 of connectors and a case to house it all.

In case you can't tell I've totally crossed over and 100% a separates guy.

 

[panteragstk]

While the 8ohm performance may not be that much of an upgrade from a similarly rated receiver, but the 4ohm performance would be the reason to purchase one of those amps. I can't really think of another reason other than thinking external power is "better".

 

[jhayman]

I just recieved my XPA-5 200W x5..
All I can say is WOW my low end has never sounded better and buttery midrange..
I love when you have heard a song many times before then hear it again with Higher End Components and you hear things you never heard before in some music..
At 73lbs it's no slouch in the weight department, Remember lift with your Legs..
I am Happy with my purchase

 

[templemaners]

Simple - business & marketing 101

They probably don't want sales cannibalization between the two lines. My guess is more people would "downgrade" to a 200w amp than would upgrade from a 125w amp, thus they would have a lower top line.

 

[KEW]

They probably don't want sales cannibalization between the two lines. My guess is more people would "downgrade" to a 200w amp than would upgrade from a 125w amp, thus they would have a lower top line.

Ahhh! My first thought after reading this was "that would only hold if you have a captive market". Then I realized Emotiva pretty much has a captive market (DUH!). If another company offered a decent 200Watt Amp for $600, I think Emotive would lose a lot of sales of across the UPA-200, XPA-3, and XPA2.
The point I was missing was that they essentially the only player in the market for value separates. Their toughest competition is a pair of outlaw 2200 monolocks for $674 (in most cases spending another $126 for the XPA-2 makes better sense).
As long as no one else offers competition, they don't have much incentive to add a two channel version of the XPA-3. Kind of a shame, I still think a lot of people who are upgrading by adding a separate amp wish the UPA-200 was more, but don't need or want to pay for an XPA-2.

 

[KEW]

All I can say is WOW my low end has never sounded better and buttery midrange..

All the better to eat your popcorn with!

 

[slipperybidness]

Ahhh! My first thought after reading this was "that would only hold if you have a captive market". Then I realized Emotiva pretty much has a captive market (DUH!). If another company offered a decent 200Watt Amp for $600, I think Emotive would lose a lot of sales of across the UPA-200, XPA-3, and XPA2.
The point I was missing was that they essentially the only player in the market for value separates. Their toughest competition is a pair of outlaw 2200 monolocks for $674 (in most cases spending another $126 for the XPA-2 makes better sense).
As long as no one else offers competition, they don't have much incentive to add a two channel version of the XPA-3. Kind of a shame, I still think a lot of people who are upgrading by adding a separate amp wish the UPA-200 was more, but don't need or want to pay for an XPA-2.

Some of the Parasound gear is pushing into the same market.

 

[j_garcia]

With the modular design, it would be simple to pull one of the channels from the XPA-3 and have a ~$600 200WPC amp which would sell as good as (probably better than) anything they make!

Emotiva must have considered this and decided not to do it. Any ideas on why?

Um, Emotiva already did this. For whatever reason, it did not catch on or sell well or had issues. One chassis and however many modules you wanted (up to 7).

 

[KEW]

That had to be before I was paying attention. Do you know what the old model number was?

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Behold - The MPS-1!

That had to be before I was paying attention. Do you know what the old model number was?

 

[KEW]

That looks pretty cool!
Remember how the pricing ran?
I would think at 7 channels it would be too expensive since you are buying transformers/capacitors on a per channel basis. But at 2 or 3 channels, seems like it might have been competitive.
Did they have only one module, or a high power and a lower power module that could share the same chassis?

 

[STRONGBADF1]

No idea about what the price was...

 

[Matt34]

New product announcements:

The Emotiva Lounge - EmoFest 2012 Product Notes & Updates

 

[slipperybidness]

That looks pretty cool!
Remember how the pricing ran?
I would think at 7 channels it would be too expensive since you are buying transformers/capacitors on a per channel basis. But at 2 or 3 channels, seems like it might have been competitive.
Did they have only one module, or a high power and a lower power module that could share the same chassis?

I like it. Must have been before emo hit my radar. That would be one way to keep the total cost under the radar from the girlfriend

 

[KEW]

New product announcements:

The Emotiva Lounge - EmoFest 2012 Product Notes & Updates

Thanks for the link. The XPA-200 mostly fills the niche I was targeting. While the 140WPC @ 8ohms is (on the surface) no great upgrade from a good receiver, the 220WPC @ 4Ohms reflects a definite increase in rigor over any typical receiver.

There is also a new XPA-200, also shipping 9/15 for $499 @ 140 W/channel into 8 ohms, 220 W/channel into 4. The XPA-200 is essentially a UPA-2 �on steroids�, so it is the �little brother� to the XPA-2 much like the XPA-100 is to the XPA-1.

As a point of comparison on the XPA-200, The old UPA-2 was rated 125WPC into 8ohms and 185WPC into 4Ohms

 

[PENG]

Thanks for the link. The XPA-200 mostly fills the niche I was targeting. While the 140WPC @ 8ohms is (on the surface) no great upgrade from a good receiver, the 220WPC @ 4Ohms reflects a definite increase in rigor over any typical receiver.

Any? I am not so sure. If you can believe HTM, HCC etc. lab measurements, 'Any' 3808 and higher Denon AVRs can do more than that when only two channels are driven and at 0.1% THD. Same for similar Yamaha, Onkyo and even Marantz AVRs. Not for ACD though.

 

[KEW]

Any? I am not so sure. If you can believe HTM, HCC etc. lab measurements, 'Any' 3808 and higher Denon AVRs can do more than that when only two channels are driven and at 0.1% THD. Same for similar Yamaha, Onkyo and even Marantz AVRs. Not for ACD though.

Thanks fot the correction. You are right, I was thinking ACD specs. With something like a denon avr-3808 or better, it looks like adding amplification like upa 500 for the surrounds, and letting the denon handle the mains would make better sense than an xpa-200.