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Post by knucklehead on Aug 10, 2017 23:06:19 GMT -5
Other than the amp using a very little bit of power in standby I doubt there is a problem either way you power it on/off. How much power can that orange standby light use?
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Post by mrloren on Aug 11, 2017 19:08:56 GMT -5
So I contacted Emotive on Tuesday and got the reply Wednesday morning
Hi Loren,
We just shipped Amazon some units this week, so it should be available again shortly. We also will be accepting Amazon payments on our website in the next week or so. Janna Riggs Accounting Department"
Still nothing available on Amazon but Amazon payments is now on the Emotiva web site. I have a lot (2/3 of the purchase price) in amazon gift cards. Last time I tried to use gift card through Amazon payments with Grizzley it didn't work.
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Post by jimcreek on Aug 16, 2017 13:51:08 GMT -5
I’ve been listening to my A-300 for almost a week so here are my impressions. (BTW: I am strictly a two channel listener, with no subwoofer, for music and movies.)
To be honest my expectations were low for the A-300 due to the low price. After unpacking the A-300 I was impressed by the appearance. It was good looking, heavy and well built. The status LEDs can be turned off-on which is a nice touch. I could see a huge toroidal transformer through the vent holes in the case. It dwarfed the transformer in my Marantz PM8004.
One issue bothered me though. Emotiva’s Site has a photo of inside the case of the A-300 that shows computer fans cooling the heat-sink. I am a little leery of these internal cooling fans over the long term. The amp is dead quiet for now but will the fans become noisy or suck in dust?
The only other quirk is that the A-300 only accepts RCA inputs, no balanced inputs. This is not an issue for me because my Schiit Saga only has RCA outputs.
So I wired the A-300 to my Schiit Saga and gave it a listen.
When I first powered up the A-300 I was not impressed. The upper mids and treble sounded a bit grainy. It also seemed to lack detail. So I let it run unattended for 6 hours at a low volume.The amp changed for the better but I gave it still more time. The next day I ran the A-300 for another 8 hours unattended.
Afterwards, I sat down and seriously evaluated the A-300.
This is a cool running amp. After 8 hours it was barely lukewarm. I opened the volume all the way with no signal. With my ears on the speakers I heard dead silence, no hum, no hiss.
Over the next week I played vinyl and digital material of all genres. My impression of the A-300 amplification is neither lush nor lean. It is a refined sound with excellent detail. Treble is smooth and extended. Bass is solid. I tested the bass with ‘Bass Mechaniks’ CD and found a small increase in the bass response from 40-45hz over my previous amp (Marantz PM8004), likely due to the increased power of the A-300.
Imaging is very satisfying. My speakers are placed on either side of my fireplace. With the A-300, the speakers project a wide stage, from behind the fireplace to a point in front of the speakers. My listening sessions are very engaging and meditative. The A-300 is a damn fine amplifier.
You can tell I really like this amp despite my concern over the cooling fans. I am surprised that Emotiva can sell the A-300 for under $400 and then offer a 30 day money back guarantee and 3 year warranty. There is nothing anywhere near this price, new or used, with the performance of the A-300. Plus, Emotiva gives you free shipping. That is a crazy good deal for such a high quality product.
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Post by vneal on Aug 16, 2017 20:07:50 GMT -5
I ordered my A300 on 8/3. I just recieved notice that it will be shipped today, via UPS. My current setup is a Marantz PM8004 driving Usher N6300 speakers. My new setup will be a Schiit Saga driving an Emotiva A300. I am excited ! Well, my A-300 arrived less than an hour ago. Here's a quick one minute review. UPS delivered the box in perfect condition. The unit was well packed, double boxed, w/fitted styrofoam. A nice black cloth with the "Emotiva" logo covered the amp. It comes with a power cord, a trigger cable, two spare fuses. I got everything connected after reading the manual, very straight forward. (Schiit Saga preamp, Usher N6300 speakers) It's a very good looking amp, especially with the blue status LEDs. I am extremely happy 😁........so far! I won't comment on the sound until I run it for a week. Its a sweet sounding amp. Last amp I classified this way was when the B&K 202Plus came out
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 1:30:41 GMT -5
I’ve been listening to my A-300 for almost a week so here are my impressions. (BTW: I am strictly a two channel listener, with no subwoofer, for music and movies.) To be honest my expectations were low for the A-300 due to the low price. After unpacking the A-300 I was impressed by the appearance. It was good looking, heavy and well built. The status LEDs can be turned off-on which is a nice touch. I could see a huge toroidal transformer through the vent holes in the case. It dwarfed the transformer in my Marantz PM8004. One issue bothered me though. Emotiva’s Site has a photo of inside the case of the A-300 that shows computer fans cooling the heat-sink. I am a little leery of these internal cooling fans over the long term. The amp is dead quiet for now but will the fans become noisy or suck in dust? The only other quirk is that the A-300 only accepts RCA inputs, no balanced inputs. This is not an issue for me because my Schiit Saga only has RCA outputs. So I wired the A-300 to my Schiit Saga and gave it a listen. When I first powered up the A-300 I was not impressed. The upper mids and treble sounded a bit grainy. It also seemed to lack detail. So I let it run unattended for 6 hours at a low volume.The amp changed for the better but I gave it still more time. The next day I ran the A-300 for another 8 hours unattended. Afterwards, I sat down and seriously evaluated the A-300. This is a cool running amp. After 8 hours it was barely lukewarm. I opened the volume all the way with no signal. With my ears on the speakers I heard dead silence, no hum, no hiss. Over the next week I played vinyl and digital material of all genres. My impression of the A-300 amplification is neither lush nor lean. It is a refined sound with excellent detail. Treble is smooth and extended. Bass is solid. I tested the bass with ‘Bass Mechaniks’ CD and found a small increase in the bass response from 40-45hz over my previous amp (Marantz PM8004), likely due to the increased power of the A-300. Imaging is very satisfying. My speakers are placed on either side of my fireplace. With the A-300, the speakers project a wide stage, from behind the fireplace to a point in front of the speakers. My listening sessions are very engaging and meditative. The A-300 is a damn fine amplifier. You can tell I really like this amp despite my concern over the cooling fans. I am surprised that Emotiva can sell the A-300 for under $400 and then offer a 30 day money back guarantee and 3 year warranty. There is nothing anywhere near this price, new or used, with the performance of the A-300. Plus, Emotiva gives you free shipping. That is a crazy good deal for such a high quality product. From the impression I got the fan was added mainly because it was required for testing purposes. In the real world it rarely turns on - unless you've been cranking it constantly for a couple of hours loudly. It sounds like you are interested in the internals of the amp. You may be interested in some of its history. Its earliest ancestor - the UPA-2 imo was a more solid looking amp. It had no fan and used hefty heat sinks. It also had two xpa series blades all for about $300. When I got this amp, I honestly felt like I stole it at that price! It was fantastic. I am terribly sad that I let it go. Then they slightly upgraded the UPA-2 and moved it to the X-series to be the XPA-200 with upgrades for about $500. So when they did it the u-series (which was the entry level at the time) needed something to fill it. So they introduced the immediate predecessor to your basx the upa-200 to replace the UPA-2 in the u series. This is what the UPA-2 looked like And this was it in the new iteration the XPA-200: note it has significantly increased capacitance Then came the UPA-200 And finally your current amp Basx A-300
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Post by jimcreek on Aug 17, 2017 8:06:05 GMT -5
Garbulky, thanks for the tour and photos of previous models. I am interested in the internals of amps. I didn't know the cooling fans turn off and on with the A-300. I thought they stayed on all the time. I assume they are thermostatically controlled? In any event, I love the sound, performance and appearance of the A-300.
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Post by rbk123 on Aug 17, 2017 8:35:34 GMT -5
The BasX amps apparently are XPA Gen2 amps in BasX clothing based on Rory's post in this thread (he also mentions the fans): emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/50657/emotiva-basx-recommendation-elac-b6I would guess they have lower wattage than the G2's so as not to take away sales from the G3 line. The G2's (and the G1's for that matter) are great amps, so it's no surprise yours sounds great.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 9:23:37 GMT -5
The BasX amps apparently are XPA Gen2 amps in BasX clothing based on Rory's post in this thread (he also mentions the fans): emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/50657/emotiva-basx-recommendation-elac-b6I would guess they have lower wattage than the G2's so as not to take away sales from the G3 line. The G2's (and the G1's for that matter) are great amps, so it's no surprise yours sounds great. The similarity between the XPA Gen2 amps and the BasX amps is in the topology and the component selection. The boards are different and the internal layout is different, and the designs are scaled-down to match the BasX power targets. There might be small identifiable differences in sound but they should be mostly similar sounding. Keith reminds me that nearly all Class-AB amplifiers made today are fundamentally the same, tracing their lineage to the "LIN Blameless" amplifier, with small tweaks and different things hanging off of it and such. It's a proven and stable topology that has been favored by designers for decades.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 11:04:01 GMT -5
The BasX amps apparently are XPA Gen2 amps in BasX clothing based on Rory's post in this thread (he also mentions the fans): emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/50657/emotiva-basx-recommendation-elac-b6I would guess they have lower wattage than the G2's so as not to take away sales from the G3 line. The G2's (and the G1's for that matter) are great amps, so it's no surprise yours sounds great. How are they XPA amps? I see one single blade sometimes for five channels. All the XPA amps I've seen have a single blade per channel. They may borrow technology from them, but it looks very different from the X-series components and are at least modified in some significant way.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 11:06:22 GMT -5
Garbulky, thanks for the tour and photos of previous models. I am interested in the internals of amps. I didn't know the cooling fans turn off and on with the A-300. I thought they stayed on all the time. I assume they are thermostatically controlled? In any event, I love the sound, performance and appearance of the A-300. No they are off likely greater than 90% of the time. I would even venture to say nearly 100%.
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Post by rbk123 on Aug 17, 2017 11:53:40 GMT -5
How are they XPA amps? I see one single blade sometimes for five channels. All the XPA amps I've seen have a single blade per channel. They may borrow technology from them, but it looks very different from the X-series components and are at least modified in some significant way. What difference would it make if the boards are laid out differently but it uses the same circuitry? It's the circuit that generates the sound, not whether both channels are on 1 board or 2. Appearance isn't going to tell you if it has the same amp circuits, so I'll take Rory's info over eyeballs looking at how the boards are laid out.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 12:40:51 GMT -5
How are they XPA amps? I see one single blade sometimes for five channels. All the XPA amps I've seen have a single blade per channel. They may borrow technology from them, but it looks very different from the X-series components and are at least modified in some significant way. What difference would it make if the boards are laid out differently but it uses the same circuitry? It's the circuit that generates the sound, not whether both channels are on 1 board or 2. Appearance isn't going to tell you if it has the same amp circuits, so I'll take Rory's info over eyeballs looking at how the boards are laid out. Well I don't see two XPA blades. I see one. That's the difference. Maybe they took one blade and repurposed it for two channels - but that makes it different doesn't it?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 13:18:02 GMT -5
What difference would it make if the boards are laid out differently but it uses the same circuitry? It's the circuit that generates the sound, not whether both channels are on 1 board or 2. Appearance isn't going to tell you if it has the same amp circuits, so I'll take Rory's info over eyeballs looking at how the boards are laid out. Well I don't see two XPA blades. I see one. That's the difference. Maybe they took one blade and repurposed it for two channels - but that makes it different doesn't it? You're being really pedantic or overly literal or both. Electronics don't (much - with exceptions in certain areas) care how they're laid out - they care about how their schematic is organized (the topology) and what components are used. No, they're not the same literal thing, down the board or the wire or the chassis size/shape (all things that have nothing to do with circuit topology), but they work in a similar way and provide similar benefits.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 13:35:40 GMT -5
Well I don't see two XPA blades. I see one. That's the difference. Maybe they took one blade and repurposed it for two channels - but that makes it different doesn't it? You're being really pedantic or overly literal or both. Electronics don't (much - with exceptions in certain areas) care how they're laid out - they care about how their schematic is organized (the topology) and what components are used. No, they're not the same literal thing, down the board or the wire or the chassis size/shape (all things that have nothing to do with circuit topology), but they work in a similar way and provide similar benefits. I get what you are saying. But similar can mean lots of things. I don't really see any specifics on how they are actually similar like what's the difference between one blade for say 5 channels versus one blade per channel? Sounds like a differing amount of output devices etc. If it's so similar why do the X series have separate blades? I say this because I've heard the Basx and it just wasn't the same thing. Granted it's subjective. I say this because when the UPA-200 was released it was released as an upgrade short signal path etc. I heard it as well as the basx and well it wasn't an upgrade. Now it sounded fine don't get me wrong. Emotiva doesn't really release bad amps. They know what they are doing. But there's a difference. And I understand that stuff may be private and I am not owed anything. Just saying my point of view.
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Post by rbk123 on Aug 17, 2017 14:36:47 GMT -5
Well I don't see two XPA blades. I see one. That's the difference. Maybe they took one blade and repurposed it for two channels - but that makes it different doesn't it? An electronic circuit is the same whether it's on 1 circuit board or 10. The boards don't conduct the sound, the circuit does. It's like saying a file is different because it's stored on a USB stick vs. a hard drive. No, they're still the same. Edit: I see Rory beat me to it.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 14:39:24 GMT -5
Well I don't see two XPA blades. I see one. That's the difference. Maybe they took one blade and repurposed it for two channels - but that makes it different doesn't it? An electronic circuit is the same whether it's on 1 circuit board or 10. The boards don't conduct the sound, the circuit does. It's like saying a file is different because it's stored on a USB stick vs. a hard drive. No, they're still the same. You can't assume that. Rory mentioned that things were scaled down. That could mean anything. Topology - class AB? That could mean lots of things. We already know the basx don't use the Darlington circuitry - not that I care but the original UPA-2 did have it. Also while the UPA-200 was being sold the XPA-200 which looked similar to the UPA-2 was priced at something like $200 more. Now if they were the same....why did they cost more? But there are differences. We don't know the specifics but we can see that there's one board versus TWO XPA-5 blades. On some of the amps that one board powers five channels. Plus they do sound different - at least to me. You can't say they are the same. It's not that simple. Maybe they share similarities, I'll grant you that.
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Post by rbk123 on Aug 17, 2017 14:46:28 GMT -5
You can't assume that. Rory mentioned that things were scaled down. That could mean anything. Topology - class AB? That could mean lots of things. We already know the basx don't use the Darlington circuitry - not that I care but the original UPA-2 did have it. Also while the UPA-200 was being sold the XPA-200 which looked similar to the UPA-2 was priced at something like $200 more. Now if they were the same....why did they cost more? But there are differences. We don't know the specifics but we can see that there's one board versus TWO XPA-5 blades. On some of the amps that one board powers five channels. Plus they do sound different - at least to me. You can't say they are the same. It's not that simple. Maybe they share similarities, I'll grant you that. Good grief - cost isn't a factor in something being the same. That's Marketing and tons of other factors. An XPA-Gen 2 circuit is an XPA-Gen 2 circuit. We don't know if they use the exact same components - that may account for some difference, but your golden ears can hear a difference between a XPA2 - G2, vs. an XPA5 - G2, vs. an XPA3-G2. Are they sonically different? Maybe, but if so the difference is going to be very small. Same if the BasX is a G2 circuit; hence why they perform so well.
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Post by garbulky on Aug 17, 2017 15:17:27 GMT -5
You can't assume that. Rory mentioned that things were scaled down. That could mean anything. Topology - class AB? That could mean lots of things. We already know the basx don't use the Darlington circuitry - not that I care but the original UPA-2 did have it. Also while the UPA-200 was being sold the XPA-200 which looked similar to the UPA-2 was priced at something like $200 more. Now if they were the same....why did they cost more? But there are differences. We don't know the specifics but we can see that there's one board versus TWO XPA-5 blades. On some of the amps that one board powers five channels. Plus they do sound different - at least to me. You can't say they are the same. It's not that simple. Maybe they share similarities, I'll grant you that. Good grief - cost isn't a factor in something being the same. That's Marketing and tons of other factors. An XPA-Gen 2 circuit is an XPA-Gen 2 circuit. Well the key word is "scaled down". That could mean anything. Like we used the same resistor and one of the eight output devices on that blade per channel versus all of them. That's a difference. The point I'm making is it's hard to assume they are the same because what Rory says because the wording changes the meaning. If he chooses to be more specific then sure I'll accept it. But I can't change what I see. It's right there on the pictures. Two versus one. The two are not the same. If two became one ....something happened and that's all we know without specifics. It doesn't make the A-300 a bad amp. Heck the $300 UPA-2 amp became a $500 amp and I wasn't upset. But between the UPA-2 and its replacement I think I know what I would pick. Dan himself said the problem with the UPA-2 and the old u series as a whole was they were too close to the x-series. So hence my line of thinking when they make one that clearly looks to be now quite differentiated from the x series, fans, single blade and all. Not to mention less capacitance and in some cases the lower power supply on the larger multi channel basx amps versus the UPA-5. The two don't look the same.
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BasX-A300
Aug 17, 2017 15:45:54 GMT -5
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Post by Jim on Aug 17, 2017 15:45:54 GMT -5
You can't assume that. Rory mentioned that things were scaled down. That could mean anything. Topology - class AB? That could mean lots of things. We already know the basx don't use the Darlington circuitry - not that I care but the original UPA-2 did have it. Also while the UPA-200 was being sold the XPA-200 which looked similar to the UPA-2 was priced at something like $200 more. Now if they were the same....why did they cost more? But there are differences. We don't know the specifics but we can see that there's one board versus TWO XPA-5 blades. On some of the amps that one board powers five channels. Plus they do sound different - at least to me. You can't say they are the same. It's not that simple. Maybe they share similarities, I'll grant you that. Good grief - cost isn't a factor in something being the same. That's Marketing and tons of other factors. An XPA-Gen 2 circuit is an XPA-Gen 2 circuit. We don't know if they use the exact same components - that may account for some difference, but your golden ears can hear a difference between a XPA2 - G2, vs. an XPA5 - G2, vs. an XPA3-G2. Are they sonically different? Maybe, but if so the difference is going to be very small. Same if the BasX is a G2 circuit; hence why they perform so well. I could be wrong, but I think what Garbulky is trying to ferret out is "How different are they really?" Terminology semantics aside, other than them both being A-B amps - I'm curious how different they are. I would argue if someone says it's audibly different (and in terms of form factor - extremely) - the differences aren't minor. It's just that the end result might be very very close (electrically speaking). Different layout, different form factor, different components. So what's similar? I'm not being combative, I'm just curious. I don't think it's wrong to try to understand the generational changes / improvements. I imagine Lonnie has been asked about this at Emofest more than once.
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Post by Dan Laufman on Aug 17, 2017 16:04:05 GMT -5
Hi kids, The BasX amplifiers are derived from the XPA circuit topology. They are signifigantly improved from the previous Ultra Series amplifiers. Noise, THD, and overall build quality are improved. All PCB's are now double sided FR-4 material.
I think the BasX amplifiers are great! I'm really proud of them, and at their price points, they have no real competition. BTW, the output stage is a fully complementary, discrete darlington design and uses the same high speed, high current ON Semiconductor power devices as the XPA Series. The cooling fans RAREY operate. They are there primarily to pass CE and FTC heat soak preconditioning tests. They are also handy if the amps are mounted in an area without proper ventilation. During normal operation, you will not normally see them turn on.
Happy listening, Big Dan
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