Integrated Amplifiers

Emotiva has a product catalogue that looks to cover all (affordable) bases across hi-fi and home theatre. It produces stereo amps, DACs and pre/power combinations; multichannel processors, power amplifiers and AV receivers; and loudspeakers, subwoofers and headphones. This multi-pronged approach finds its way into the BasX TA2, which is far from your common-or-garden stereo integrated amp. The addition of an FM tuner – a 'digital' front-end integrated into the Bluetooth receiver solution – is not uncommon practice on AV amplifiers (or 'receivers') that are intended to function as a full system hub. Incidentally, DAB radio is not an option on the TA2. Moreover, the amplifier's home theatre bypass connection allows it to be incorporated into a multichannel set-up, acting as a – most likely more powerful – amplifier for the front left/right channels in a surround sound system.

Yet it's the BasX TA2's bass management functionality that is the most unusual, bringing greater flexibility to a speaker/subwoofer set-up than is the norm – whether the unit is being used to power loudspeakers via its speaker outs, or solely as a preamp. Through the amp's subwoofer pre-out, the signal to a connected (active) subwoofer can either be sent as full-range, or via the TA2's analogue low-pass filter (LPF). On the TA1 model, the LPF is fixed at 90Hz, but here there's a small dial offering a variable 40Hz-200Hz roll-off.

There's also variable 40Hz-200Hz control for the corresponding high-pass filter (HPF) on the TA2's stereo preamp output, which also applies to its internal amplifiers. This means that loudspeakers in a 2.1 system can – if desired – only cover certain frequencies, eg, 80Hz and above. Just remember to make sure the HPF is set to 'Off' for regular stereo listening...