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About 15 years ago, my late 1980s B&K ST-140 stereo amplifier went weak in the left channel. As my wife & I were living on a modest income while raising 2 hungry, growing young boys, we couldn’t realistically & responsibly afford to replace that B&K with a comparable amplifier. We chose to “simplify” with a mid-range Japanese made receiver that we purchased as an open box demo at Circuit City for half retail price. With great sadness, I had to sideline my Sumo Athena preamp (which has a Direct mode where the signal basically bypasses all electronics in the preamp to send the signal “directly” to the volume control potentiometer with as little distortion & noise as possible—very similar to the old passive Mod Squad Line Drive). While this receiver performed 100% reliably for 15 years, our music lost its detailed, wonderfully musical flavor. I “suffered” (ha ha) quietly for 15 years with the consolation that we made the right choice to be frugal for the sake of our family & family budget’s health. However, I noticed that I no longer put on music for the mere sake of sitting to listen with intense, eager focus; I missed those countless listening sessions. I am very humbly thankful that my wife and I now have the budget to be able to afford the replacement of the old B&K ST-140 that I loved so much. After long “research” through Randy (The Cheap Audio Man), Steve Guttenberg (Audiophiliac), Andrew Robinson, and other good YouTube audiophile channels as well as continual internet reviews research, I basically landed on the Emotiva A1 Monoblock amps. I simply could not possibly be happier! I am once again feeling the urge to cry, laugh, & smile until my face hurts when I listen to music! EVERY bit of music is once again an event whether I am intentionally listening with I distracted focus or listening casually as I cook, read, entertain guests, or move about my home. My old Sumo preamp (bought in 1992 as a half price demo) is as transparent and “perfect” as ever. My 35 year old California Audio Labs Icon CD player suits my ear perfectly. I know they are not for everyone, but I love my 35+ year old Klipsch KG-4 speakers. Thank you, Emotiva, for once again turning every listening session into pure happiness! I appreciate your commitment to making affordable audiophile equipment that we audiophiles with modest incomes can enjoy! PS—By the way, the BasXA1 Monoblock Amps are absolutely silent as the operate, power my Klipsch KG-4s with effortlessly powerful control, and the run absolutely cool although directly stacked. Of course, they arrived promptly in perfect condition. Even the Emotiva boxes & packaging is a high quality execution & experience! I could not recommend Emotiva more highly!

My audiophile journey started in the mid-70’s when I was much younger, inexperienced and impressionable (gullible?), I bought into every Hi-Fi hype & trend there was. It took an electrical engineering degree and a lot of years to recognize the home audio industry for what it was: a rabbit hole down a slippery slope into a world of smoke and mirrors! Back then it was $3000 pick-up cartridges and painting the edges of CD’s with green ink to mitigate light refraction losses!?!? Today it’s $15,000 cables and other assorted nonsense manufacturers would have us believe are worth the money for an astonishing difference in sound quality. Fortunately, there are a few companies that don’t trade in hype and instead present a common sense perspective to consumers. Emotiva is one such company, offering good quality products that perform really well for a price that doesn’t insult our intelligence. I own two Emotiva processors and three Emotiva amps, each of which compared favorably to alternatives I auditioned costing up to five times the price. Any superiority others had in specific areas was so marginal that for the money and the law of diminishing returns, choosing the Emotiva’s was an easy decision. Since then, I’ve upgraded the amps with higher power modules and had one processor back for service and in all cases, customer support was helpful and efficient, service time was rapid and cost friendly. All more important to me than marketing. As for recommending Emotiva to a friend based upon my experience? I already have! AS Missouri

just some pics of my rack and wiring so far

Fast shipping!

Awesome sound and great power.