Emotiva's New A-5175 Amp Now Available!

[speakerman39]

Here is a new amp from Emotiva! The BasX A-5175 is $799 that is rated as follows:

125 rms X 5 from 20-20K @ 8 ohms all channels driven!

That is very impressive! Got notification via my email so I thought that I would share!


Cheers,

Phil

 

[KEW]

That looks like a pretty nice amp which would do a nice job of supplementing an AVR with pre-outs!

I appreciate you giving us a heads up on new products, Phil, and I this has nothing to do with you...
However, New Emotiva has inspired me to rant, and I am going to use this amp as a poster child!
I have been watching Emotiva and while they used to represent great value, they have, IMHO, lost their edge in the past year or two.
Don't get me wrong, they still make competent products and sell them at a fair price, but it used to be you could buy their gear without much second thought about finding something better for the same money or less.
In October of 2010 I bought a new UPA-5 for $400 shipped from Old Emotiva which had roughly the same specs as this $800 amp. Admittedly, that was on sale, but the regular price was $550.
Part of my point is that they used to always have an introductory discount, and some great discounts for those willing to be patient!
But the other part is that even at full MSRP, they were mostly untouchable.
For this amp, the MSRP is $800 which is $200 more than the Outlaw 5000. Their specs are close (the Outlaw is spec'ed at 120Watts for all 5 channels driven, but AH measured 135W!) and hopefully we will see some test lab results to be able to properly compare them. Maybe the New Emotiva will prove itself worthy competition, but I doubt it will justify the extra $200.
Also, Old Emotiva used to always include a full battery of test results from a third party lab under the resources tab (along with the pdf of the owners manual, etc.) and these tests always proved reasonably close to the results independent bench tests would obtain.

"Old Emotiva, come back!"

The good news is their current 16-17" depth is much more convenient than the old 21" deep amps!

 

[speakerman39]

That looks like a pretty nice amp which would do a nice job of supplementing an AVR with pre-outs!

I appreciate you giving us a heads up on new products, Phil, and I this has nothing to do with you...
However, New Emotiva has inspired me to rant, and I am going to use this amp as a poster child!
I have been watching Emotiva and while they used to represent great value, they have, IMHO, lost their edge in the past year or two.
Don't get me wrong, they still make competent products and sell them at a fair price, but it used to be you could buy their gear without much second thought about finding something better for the same money or less.
In October of 2010 I bought a new UPA-5 for $400 shipped from Old Emotiva which had roughly the same specs as this $800 amp. Admittedly, that was on sale, but the regular price was $550.
Part of my point is that they used to always have an introductory discount, and some great discounts for those willing to be patient!
But the other part is that even at full MSRP, they were mostly untouchable.
For this amp, the MSRP is $800 which is $200 more than the Outlaw 5000. Their specs are close (the Outlaw is spec'ed at 120Watts for all 5 channels driven, but AH measured 135W!) and hopefully we will see some test lab results to be able to properly compare them. Maybe the New Emotiva will prove itself worthy competition, but I doubt it will justify the extra $200.
Also, Old Emotiva used to always include a full battery of test results from a third party lab under the resources tab (along with the pdf of the owners manual, etc.) and these tests always proved reasonably close to the results independent bench tests would obtain.

"Old Emotiva, come back!"

The good news is their current 16-17" depth is much more convenient than the old 21" deep amps!

Oh I take no offense to this at all. I just got an email from them today and thought that I would share. It looked impressive to me, but I am really not a HT guy. I do know that Emotiva recently issued a statement about their new pricing policy. Here is a link:

https://emotiva.com/whats-new/important-message-about-pricing-dan-laufman


Personally, I think that this new pricing policy is going to hurt them in the long run. We all love extra good deals on special sales like Black Friday. But, hey that is my opinion. Others may think otherwise. I have never owned anything from Emotiva whereas I have Outlaw.

My intent was to only share for those that are really into HT and perhaps looking for some outboard amplification. At first glance, the specs looked impressive to me. Thanks for comparing the Emotiva to the Outlaw. There may also be others as well.


Cheers,

Phil

 

[KEW]

Thanks for the link. I had not seen that.
Kind of strange that he's declaring that Emotiva does not want to do what it's been doing for the past decade, but I have not kept up with the details of their management structure. Perhaps Dan is more in charge now than he was. I like the philosophy of what he saying, however, if they are keeping prices to a bare minimum they must be doing something wrong elsewhere because they are no longer competitive as the best deals available.
In the case of the outlaw, they are lucky because Outlaw is spec'ing there amp as 120 watts per Channel which is the rating with five channels driven whereas every other company spec's two channels driven. Thus at first glance the Emotiva would look more powerful.

 

[Verdinut]

Thanks for the link. I had not seen that.
Kind of strange that he's declaring that Emotiva does not want to do what it's been doing for the past decade, but I have not kept up with the details of their management structure. Perhaps Dan is more in charge now than he was. I like the philosophy of what he saying, however, if they are keeping prices to a bare minimum they must be doing something wrong elsewhere because they are no longer competitive as the best deals available.
In the case of the outlaw, they are lucky because Outlaw is spec'ing there amp as 120 watts per Channel which is the rating with five channels driven whereas every other company spec's two channels driven. Thus at first glance the Emotiva would look more powerful.

The Outlaw amps have a stronger power supply design than the Emotiva however, since the rated power rating on them is the same for all channels driven as for two. The Emotiva amps show a lower ACD power rating.

With regard to the pro amplifier market, for instance, QSC publish for their 4 channel Digital Cinema Amplifiers, FTC power output ratings for all channels driven and so, at affordable prices. They have two models with continuous average output power/ch of 250 watts and 400 watts for 4 ohm loads from 20-20K. Both of them use a 2U rack space and, while they are normally used as surround speaker amplifiers in cinemas across North America, they can make excellent surround amplifiers in a HT system.

 

[speakerman39]

Thanks for the link. I had not seen that.
Kind of strange that he's declaring that Emotiva does not want to do what it's been doing for the past decade, but I have not kept up with the details of their management structure. Perhaps Dan is more in charge now than he was. I like the philosophy of what he saying, however, if they are keeping prices to a bare minimum they must be doing something wrong elsewhere because they are no longer competitive as the best deals available.
In the case of the outlaw, they are lucky because Outlaw is spec'ing there amp as 120 watts per Channel which is the rating with five channels driven whereas every other company spec's two channels driven. Thus at first glance the Emotiva would look more powerful.

Yeah, many companies are now using the rms power ratings at 1K as opposed to 20-20K. This makes their amps look more powerful than they really are. I think Gene even wrote an article about that very fact not too long ago. Kind of make things deceitful inmho.


Cheers,

Phil

 

[speakerman39]

Thanks for the link. I had not seen that.
Kind of strange that he's declaring that Emotiva does not want to do what it's been doing for the past decade, but I have not kept up with the details of their management structure. Perhaps Dan is more in charge now than he was. I like the philosophy of what he saying, however, if they are keeping prices to a bare minimum they must be doing something wrong elsewhere because they are no longer competitive as the best deals available.
In the case of the outlaw, they are lucky because Outlaw is spec'ing there amp as 120 watts per Channel which is the rating with five channels driven whereas every other company spec's two channels driven. Thus at first glance the Emotiva would look more powerful.

Kurt, here is the article I was referring to with respect to power ratings:

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-amplifier/power-manipulation-in-av-receivers


You have probably seen it. But, for those that haven't I thought that I would post it here. Maybe it will be helpful to some that are merely sitting on the fence so to speak.


Cheers,

Phil

 

[Verdinut]

Yeah, many companies are now using the rms power ratings at 1K as opposed to 20-20K. This makes their amps look more powerful than they really are. I think Gene even wrote an article about that very fact not too long ago. Kind of make things deceitful inmho.


Cheers,

Phil

Also, many high-end amp manufacturers now publish THD levels at 1 KHz only, a few of them B & K. Parasound and Classé. That's doesn't indicate a transparency. Even if I wanted to spend the kind of money those companies are asking for their products, I wouldn't trust their published specs. Harmonic distortion figures can be multiplied by 6 or even more at lower and higher frequencies.
I would definitely want to see results of serious tests before thinking of buying their products.

By contrast, most pro audio manufacturers are not afraid to publish more detailed specs and I'm more inclined to trust them.

 

[2channel lover]

That looks like a pretty nice amp which would do a nice job of supplementing an AVR with pre-outs!

I appreciate you giving us a heads up on new products, Phil, and I this has nothing to do with you...
However, New Emotiva has inspired me to rant, and I am going to use this amp as a poster child!
I have been watching Emotiva and while they used to represent great value, they have, IMHO, lost their edge in the past year or two.
Don't get me wrong, they still make competent products and sell them at a fair price, but it used to be you could buy their gear without much second thought about finding something better for the same money or less.
In October of 2010 I bought a new UPA-5 for $400 shipped from Old Emotiva which had roughly the same specs as this $800 amp. Admittedly, that was on sale, but the regular price was $550.
Part of my point is that they used to always have an introductory discount, and some great discounts for those willing to be patient!
But the other part is that even at full MSRP, they were mostly untouchable.
For this amp, the MSRP is $800 which is $200 more than the Outlaw 5000. Their specs are close (the Outlaw is spec'ed at 120Watts for all 5 channels driven, but AH measured 135W!) and hopefully we will see some test lab results to be able to properly compare them. Maybe the New Emotiva will prove itself worthy competition, but I doubt it will justify the extra $200.
Also, Old Emotiva used to always include a full battery of test results from a third party lab under the resources tab (along with the pdf of the owners manual, etc.) and these tests always proved reasonably close to the results independent bench tests would obtain.

"Old Emotiva, come back!"


The good news is their current 16-17" depth is much more convenient than the old 21" deep amps!

Spot on KEW...the difference from what I can see...Emo had some growth goals and biz 101 says you've got to branch out from word of mouth, and forums based marketing. I understand they are starting to take a larger presence as CES and clearly have taken on more SF at the highend shows like AXPONA, more internet ads, etc.

That marketing effort has to fold back into the pricing at some point. Granted to the masses, Emo is still an unknown compared to the big boys like Marantz, but to AV heads like us, Emo is almost a household name now. They probably feel they have established some level of trust so they don't feel the need to provide "proof" via test results, etc. I think most savvy buyers are going to wait until the pro reviewers have put these products through the grinder.

Outlaw on the other hand...they seem to be content being a niche AV source. I have purchased from both, and in some ways they still operate like small companies (for instance...call Emo during their lunch hr and you'll likely get a VM saying we're at lunch, leave a message and we'll call you back).

Clearly Outlaw offers more value oriented products now...the 5000 is a no brainer over the 5175...pound for pound it's hard to beat the 7 ch 7140 model. Emo's BASX line imo is well positioned and from my experience (A500 & A800) so far, perform maybe a little higher than you would expect for the money.