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Emotiva Ships 3 New High-End Power Amps for Stereo and Home Theater Use

By Rachel Cericola

Emotiva is looking to make itself known -- or at least heard. The audio company just announced a trio of home theater amplifiers, designed to deliver quality audio for almost any budget.

At the top of the heap is the XPR-5 Five-Channel Reference Power Amplifier. The faceplate alone is made of 25mm of solid billet aluminum that's been tooled, machined, engraved, and finished. It also has 60 dimmable dual-color LEDs hidden behind a smoked polycarbonate window and Reference Series accent lighting. With all of that attention to detail, you know that there has to be something good inside!

That would be the five high-efficiency Class AB power amplifier modules, which are powered by a 3.3 kVA Optimized Class H toroidal power supply with power reserves. Everything is controlled and protected by the ARM-7 microprocessor. With 400 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, the unit promises low noise and distortion when all five channels are driven. Other features include five independently switchable balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (gold-plated RCA) inputs, audiophile-quality binding posts, 12V trigger inputs and outputs, and more.

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The XPR-5 has a faceplate made of 25mm of solid billet aluminum that’s been tooled, machined, engraved, and finished.

If you're looking for something a little more affordable, the company just started shipping the the UPA-500 and UPA-200. As the first models in the company's revamped Ultra Series, both are designed to deliver good sound, without breaking the bank.

The UPA-500 promises 80 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, a heavy-duty power supply, and an oversized toroidal transformer. The UPA-200 is a two-channel model, with 125 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, class AB design topology, and a wideband, short signal path. Both models have gold-plated RCA input terminals and gold-plated five-way binding posts, 115 VAC or 230 VAC operation, and automatic detection and switching.

"In designing the UPA-500 and UPA-200, we really listened to feedback from our fans and laid the foundation for a new Ultra Series that's undeniably distinct from other home audio lines," says Dan Laufman, President of Emotiva. "In addition to the new internal designs, we've also added some external touches that we believe fans will appreciate-like a Stealth Mode that disables the front panel status LEDs and Standby button halo lighting."

Emotiva has started selling the XPR-5, the UPA-500 and the UPA-200 on the company's website. They are priced at $1999, $399 and $349, respectively.

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The UPA-500 promises 80 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, or 200 watts per channel into four Ohms.

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