power amplifier

I recently raved about Emotiva's Airmotiv 4 powered speakers, but if you already have a nice pair of speakers and need a great affordable amp, the company's Mini-X a-100 deserves an audition. Emotiva calls the Mini-X a-100 a "Super Flex" amp, which I assume means it's super flexible. You can run it with a CD player, computer, iPod, or as a "second zone" amp in a multiroom system, a rear surround speaker amp, or just a basic amp for a small hi-fi.

The Mini-X a-100 looks like a smaller version of one of … Read more

American companies dominate the worldwide high-end audio market, but those brands are known only to the most passionate audiophiles in their home country.

Like most American high-end brands, Viola Labs, based in New Haven, Conn., has just a few retail outlets in the U.S. Audiophiles in Asia and Europe have made up the majority of Viola's customers since 2001.

So chances are most of my readers are in the dark about Viola. That's why I made the trek to New Haven to learn more about the brand. Viola's two original founders, Tom Colangelo and Paul Jayson, … Read more

Today's receivers may be jam-packed with the latest technology, but they lack the muscle of high-end power amplifiers. If your home theater is above average in size, say 300 or more square feet, and you like to listen nice and loud, there's a good chance your receiver's power amp is the weak link in your system.

People ask me about this stuff all the time: "Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, and Yamaha receivers all boast up to the nanosecond surround processing modes, connectivity options up the whazoo, and fancy remotes--so what exactly would a brawny amplifier get … Read more

Dan D'Agostino is one of the founding fathers of American high-end audio. He began his audio odyssey at age 11, patching together more than his share of amplifier kits as his father built Klipsch speakers. By 14, he graduated to a Marantz preamp and power amplifier, and AR 1 speakers with Janszen electrostatic tweeters, all purchased with money he earned "polishing the tubes, and sweeping up the floors" at his hometown hi-fi shop, the Audio Center in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He went on to receive his electrical engineering degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

He … Read more

Today's receivers are jam-packed with features, but the one thing they lack is power.

In fact, most $500 receivers never come close to delivering their rated power into all channels.

Some can barely manage a third of their claimed wattage. Right now, your 100 watt per channel receiver might be pumping out only 30 something watts.

People ask me about this stuff all the time--"Steve, Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony and Yamaha receivers all boast up to the nanosecond surround processing modes, connectivity options up the whazoo, and fancy shamncy remotes--so what exactly would a brawny multichannel amplifier get me?" My answer to these queries is always the same: "Just two things, the power and the glory."

The problem: Receivers, even big ticket, $2,000+ models can't spare enough internal real estate to house humongous transformers and hefty power supply capacitors--the compromises inevitably start there. Separate power amplifiers have room for all of that good stuff.

Enter Emotiva Audio's XPA 200 watt, five-channel amplifier ($799), 1,000 watts total. It's actually a lot more powerful than just double your average 100 watt per channel receiver; the XPA amplifier can deliver up to 350 watts to each of its five channels with four-ohm speaker loads. You'll look far and wide to find a receiver that can drive low-impedance speakers like a separate power amp can. And it'll cost a whole lot more than the Emotiva XPA will.

Oh, and please don't worry that the XPA is too powerful for your speakers. Too much power doesn't harm speakers, playing them too loud with an underpowered receiver is far more likely to do your speakers in. … Read more

It's like the difference in taste between a tomato you grew in your backyard or one of those plastic things at the supermarket, or frozen pizza vs. a slice fresh out of the oven in Little Italy. We're talking big differences here. And those are the sort of sensual pleasures high-end audio delivers compared to iPods and ear buds. Sure, the little buggers sound good enough, but if you really love music, don't you want to hear your tunes sound as good as they can?

I'm sitting here listening to the late British singer/songwriter Nick … Read more