Emotiva Mini-X a100?

[Mrtie]

As a preface I had been using crown xti's with my jubscala and tried to sell my DX-38 but for whatever reason those units are not moving on the bay right now so like the good nuerotic tweaker that I am I started using the dx38 agian and moved the crowns back into power amps, well the dx38 sounds plain better doing the crossover work to my ears, and since the crowns seem to always find a buying I'm now in the market for two new amps on the cheap and cheerful side. I had my heart set on a pair of Virtue audio ONE.2's but Virtue seems to be taking a break or DOA or something no stock no updates in months.Low and behold though emotive drops this little gem. http://emotiva.com/a100.shtm looks like an interesting very well build little guy that would serve my purposes just fine. HAs anyone bought one yet or is planning on it, looks like it would work well with the Heritage crowd or as a nice bedroom/office amp and looks very nicely done for less then a lot of folks monthly heating bills.As it stands there is not a bunch of info about it yet, I think it's almsot sure to be some form of Class D chip amp, but some of those have been very highly reviewed.

Audioholics has a preview up http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/amplifiers/emotiva-mini-x-a-100-pre

[russ69]

Looks interesting but I don't think it's a class D amp. Anyway, I have not heard it but the specs are not impressive unless you look at the price. We all are stuck with budgets but your loudspeakers could really use a good amp, how about some nice tubes?

[Schu]

to me it looks to be geared towards books shelf scene... at the minimum, I think you'd want a UPA1/2 to drive those scalas wouldn't you?

nice class D is wyred 4sound using ICE modules but they are at a different price point.

[Mrtie]

Looks interesting but I don't think it's a class D amp. Anyway, I have not heard it but the specs are not impressive unless you look at the price. We all are stuck with budgets but your loudspeakers could really use a good amp, how about some nice tubes?

Correct it's not Class D as far as I can tell, that said I've already been down the tube path(quicksilver preamp, done to the 9's updated st-70, and it was better but by a small amount, honestly I think the active crossover has more to do with the sound on a jub then nearly anything else, once I left the dx-38 for crowns I was never really happy until I switched back. Now that I moved the crowns completely out I am liking what I hearing from the emotivas strangely they also seem to have better bass control,much higher gain, and less line hum. Yeah they are $200 amps so I'm not expecting the be all end all but so far they commit less sins then the crowns and they certianly are near the ballpark of the tubes I've had before, I think this is a very nifty amp for the money and would be a solid choice for a limited budget on high efficeincy horns. Still burning them in so we'll see how it goes.

to me it looks to be geared towards books shelf
scene... at the minimum, I think you'd want a UPA1/2 to drive those
scalas wouldn't you?

nice class D is wyred 4sound using ICE modules but they are at a different price point.

Using the units as power amps I do not need to move my preamp volume past 9 to drive me from the room, I'm sure the W4S are nice I've had the change to mess around with a Pioneer SC-35 which also uses ICE, and it was nifty. Still I hear the need for 100's of watts a lot here, and frankly I don't get it, maybe you all have huge listening room but I listen about 13 feet back in a medium/small room I honestly do not believe I'm ever using more then a few watts at full blast with all my gear on my wall draw according to my belkin is like .6amps I have used everything from a 2-3watt el84 to a 275watt pro amp on these things and with the exception of the el84 and a 10watt tripath I've never found my power limited and compressed for my listening levels.

Any way here is a pic of the cute little buggers.

[Fish]

Pretty cool, specs matter much less than sound.

[Ski Bum]

Using the units as power amps I do not need to move my preamp volume past 9 to drive me from the room

Do they have their own gain or input adjustment to reel them in a bit?

They are kind of cute.

[Mrtie]

They do infact skibum they are actually little integrated amps designed for bookshelf speakers or HT zones.

[russ69]

Pretty cool, specs matter much less than sound.

True, but with no spec below 20 hz and a 95db signal to noise ratio, it would not be something I would look at.

[Marvel]

I would check out the Parasound Z series. Not quite as cute, but...

http://www.parasound.com/ParasoundZ/zampv3.php

Continuous power output:

45 watts RMS x 2, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, 8 Ω, both channels driven

60 watts RMS x 2, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, 4 Ω, both channels driven

90 watts RMS x 1, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, 8 Ω, minimum impedance



Current capacity:

12 amperes peak per channel



Frequency response:

5 Hz - 100 kHz, +0/-3 dB



Total harmonic distortion:

< 0.07 % full power

< 0.02 % typical levels



IM distortion :

< 0.05 %



Dynamic headroom :

1.5 dB



Inter-channel crosstalk :

80 dB at 1 kHz; 60 dB at 20 kHz



Input Impedance :

33 k Ω



Input Sensitivity:

600 mV; 1.5 V for full output



S/N Ratio:

116 dB, input shorted, IHF A weighted



Dimensions:

9-1/2 w x 1-3/4 h x 10 d, 2 h with feet



Net weight: 7 lbs.

Bruce

[Fish]

It looks pretty nice at about twice the price.

[Fish]

Pretty cool, specs matter much less than sound.

True, but with no spec below 20 hz and a 95db signal to noise ratio, it would not be something I would look at.

For running my outdoor speakers I'm looking at it real hard, my neighbors will never know the difference.

[Marvel]

It looks pretty nice at about twice the price.

Agreed, the cost is higher... This is on my list to someday try instead of my 2A3 amps. Having heard some Parasound gear, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the money.

Bruce

[Mrtie]

Pretty cool, specs matter much less than sound.

True, but with no spec below 20 hz and a 95db signal to noise ratio, it would not be something I would look at.

For running my outdoor speakers I'm looking at it real hard, my neighbors will never know the difference.

Plus I run a DTS-10 below 80hz, like I said it's not something for everyone but it is cheap and cheerful, and it sounds better then my XTI's did so I'm fairly happy for the price I paid thus far. I think Emo built this thing for exactly the same market that parasound covers.

[Marvel]

I think Emo built this thing for exactly the same market that parasound covers.

Looks similar. The Parasound Z series is for using in zone setups, but looks very much the same.

Bruce

[Fish]

It looks pretty nice at about twice the price.

Agreed, the cost is higher... This is on my list to someday try instead of my 2A3 amps. Having heard some Parasound gear, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the money.

Bruce

Having owned Parasound I have no doubt you would be happy with their products.Parasound amps really have a sweet sound.

[Mrtie]

I think Emo built this thing for exactly the same market that parasound covers.

Looks similar. The Parasound Z series is for using in zone setups, but looks very much the same.

Bruce

Yep they both have passthroughs for linking, 12v triggers, and autosignal sensors so I'd say yeah it's Emo's attempt at a zone amp, though obviously not as feature rich.

[Guest David H]

I know this is an old thread, but I just picked up a pair of these for a project, and gotta say they sound great.

Fresh out of the box these sounded possibly a tad bright, but had excellent detail.

I have been running these for several weeks now, and they either got smoother, or more likely I got used to the sound. Either way, a great sounding amp for $200

So far I have been pleasantly surprised with the Emotiva products.

Dave