Why does everybody love EMOTIVA amps?

Dawgfish wrote: »

Yep,

Emotiva represents solid bang for the buck. They make great sounding, well buiilt products at prices the common joe (like myself) can afford. I would love to be able to go out and by some Manley tubes or some Krells, Belles, or Classe amps. I can't justify the price of those products however. I own and have friends who own amps that were considerabley more expensive than what I payed for my XPA-3. To my ears and with my setup, the Emotiva stacks up well agianst and even surpasses most of the mid-priced amps ($1000 to $3000) that I own or have heard in friends' systems. Are they the best sounding products ever? Of courese they are not, but you have to spend a lot more money with most of the other brands out there to get equal or better performance. That makes a real winner IMHO. Also my dealings with the company have all been very positive. They have great customer service and I enjoy actually being able to call the company and talk to real people who know their product.

well said

I don't love them cause I don't own them. I'm sure they have their place just like other companies like Outlaw, AV123, Aperion Audio, SVS, HSU, Signal Cable, Oppo, etc...etc...etc...

They fall in that category of very good bang for the buck products that are not necessarily mainstream audio and marketed primarily via the internet. They all have their fanboys and detractors. The are probably not the "be all...end all" product their proponents rave about or the "junk" their skeptics decry. Just quality audio products that are reasonalbly priced due to their marketing strategies. Not the most expensive nor the cheapest. No more...no less.

If my amp died tonight, I'd be on an Emotiva amp like a fat kid on a donut. Seriously. The build quality/specifications look very good, asthetics are also cool. The price is definitely right.

I wouldn't market myself to 2ch afficianados either.

strider wrote: »

Is it a secret? A "Papa" design perhaps?

Nahhhh, no secret but yes Papa designed it. My post was just to interject that no matter what you're chasing as far as audio all the hype and praise doesn't nec mean it's going be all that you want it to be.

I've been after an Aleph 30 for awhile now. I can't find one bad thing anyone has said about the amp, professionally or in personal owners reviews. In fact if you read Stereophile (about the Aleph 3) and a few other "high end" rags the Aleph 30 and Aleph J both direct decendants of the Aleph 3, they gush so badly you'd think they got a royalty for every sale.

I am apprehensive only because of the stellar reviews it has gotten......what if I don't like it? What if it doesn't have great synergy? I'm sure I'm being over paranoid.

Parallel that to Emotiva........can and will it live up to all the hype. That was my only point.

I can't friggin' wait to get my new amp. I'm taking the day off work, buying a bag of marshmallows to roast on the heat sinks and touch myself Doro style while I listen

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

OK....here you go Aleph sucks.

hehehehehe

RT1

Tubes suck..........errrr wait the Aleph has been compared to sounding like some of the best tube amps out there........atleast having many of the positive attributes of tube amps.



Knock it off Ted...............stop stirring the pot

megasat16 wrote: »

Don't love or hate Emotiva amps. I haven't heard one yet personally but seems there are lots of marketing hypes going on in many forums. Perhaps, their amps stand up to the hype but most people who bought their amp probably have no experiences with a nice sounding amp till they bought the Emos. So, some people may think it's a great amp because they compare to the AVR or some other smallish amp they owned before. In fact, the given price makes me think their amps may be well designed yet very affordable to most people which is a BIG QUESTION TO ASK MYSELF.

WOW, took the words right out of my mouth.

Most of the gushing reviews I have read from users it was their first amp, so you have to wonder if it is all that great, or just that they are listening to their speakers being properly amplified for the first time.

The few members who have tried them who have had other amps before, SolidSqual and EarlyB come to mind, seem to sell them soon after getting them.

WilliamM2 wrote: »

Really? Have you read any of the reviews of their amps? There are several that do not meet their published specs for all channels driven. Unusual for seperate amps.

Remember what mag that was? I thought I read it in Secrets that it underperformed, and also one of the amps failed for one of the reviewers during testing.

I'm on the hunt for a new amp. Just curious as the whether or not the Emo's are common ground or not,and if the dual mono design would be be a problem for SDA's

mewisemagic wrote: »

the xpa-2 and the xpa-5 are, emailed emotiva cause i was thinking about buying a set myself

Yeah,I just got off the phone with them,the RPA-2 is grounded to the board...so I guess it isn't a common ground

The XPA-2 is WAY more amp. than I need to drive a pair of CRS+'s in a 1400 c.f. room.

heiney9 wrote: »

I've been after an Aleph 30 for awhile now. I can't find one bad thing anyone has said about the amp, professionally or in personal owners reviews. In fact if you read Stereophile (about the Aleph 3) and a few other "high end" rags the Aleph 30 and Aleph J both direct decendants of the Aleph 3, they gush so badly you'd think they got a royalty for every sale.

Just curious, why the 30 over the 5?

Face wrote: »

Just curious, why the 30 over the 5?

To be honest I never cared for the aesthetics of the 3 or it's brother the 5. Difficult binding posts, difficult to reach power switch, etc.

The Aleph 30 replaced the 3 and essentially the Alpeh 60 (ultra rare) replaced the 5 and they had minor noteworthy upgrades. Better PS, more filter capacitance, more out put tranny's which meant a little more grunt, lower noise floor, and a much higher input impedance which helps with pre-amp matching and the 30 and 60 have balanced inputs. Plus I like the more conventional looking chassis.

Aleph 5's don;t come up too often and they still get $1400-1600, certainly worth it, but more than I wanted to lay out.

The Aleph J ($2695) is supposed to be the "ultimate" Aleph (if there is such a thing) as it is identical to the Aleph 30 but uses J-Fets for the input stage.

One thing is for certain the entire Aleph line utilizes the same design philosophy of only 2 gain stages, biasing wide open, ultra matched high quality parts, fully optimized circuit design so there are no adjustments, able to drive any load including a direct short. So they are all similar sonically with very subtle differences in the end.

The Aleph is of the generation of Class A power amplifiers from Pass Labs which feature a two gain stage topology and pure single-ended operation.

Single-ended Class A operation is often referred to as the "king of Class A" because it has the smoothest transfer curve and operates at the lowest efficiency of the family of Class A topologies. Properly designed, a single-ended amplifier exhibits second and even order harmonic structure, similar to the transfer characteristic of air, where the phase of the signal and harmonics reflects the subtle difference between acoustic compression and rarefaction.

The Aleph conforms to the Pass philosophy of having absolutely minimal parts in series with the signal path. The input signal travels through a resistor to the input Mosfet transistor, and from there through another resistor to the parallel output Mosfets, and from there through a resistor to the loudspeaker. There are only two sets of gain devices and three resistors between the input and output.

This minimalist topology is supported outside of the signal path by regulated current sources which separately bias the input and output stages.

.................or maybe it's just a piece of junk

H9

heiney9 wrote: »

Just wait until they reach Adcom status in a few years...........everybody and their mother-in-law will be hating :D:p.

Emo is the flavor of the month just as Outlaw was a couple years ago. I'm sure it's a solid, well built, decently designed equipment that kicks HT systems in the balls.

I just don't think of them as really marketing to 2 ch. music afficionado's. For HT, I bet they are hard to beat with their pricing scheme, aesthetics and flexibility. Hell, if I was putting together ad dedicated HT, I'd consider them. Not for serious 2ch though.

I have my personal "holy grail" amp on the way for getting my 2ch groove on. Remains to be seen if all the hype by both uber-audiophiles and current owners will be true.

H9

hmm well you obviously have not tried one of their amps let alone the RPA-2 or XPA-2...

Tubes

Face wrote: »

are over rated...

Unless They Are Mine!