🔷 Emotiva BasX A-100

[Gravitas]

@MazeFrame @Bmn1251 Yes. That was actually the first thing I did.

[MazeFrame]

Have you tried swapping L and R in the back? Or tried the outputs as inputs (they are just feed through, so no harm in trying).

[Gravitas]

Now that I did not try. Just tried it and no bueno. Same issue.

[MazeFrame]

@Gravitas

Just tried it and no bueno. Same issue.

Hmm. If you have not already, time to contact Emotiva.

[Gravitas]

I did. they are sending me a replacement. Apparently they are in Franklin, TN. Which means, where I live, it’ll be here tomorrow. The current amp was like that. Ordered it and woke up to a shipping notficiation. LOL. Oh and their customer support is excellant. Even with this, just a silly issue could happen to any unit, love me some Emotiva.

[Gravitas]

Oh and thank you all for the suggestions. I really appreciate the help.

[Cristian_Dobrescu]

Couple of months later, still loving the little amp. Still a bit too noisy with headphones but not as bad as the first unit.

Definitely not an IEM amp lol.

But for speakers, I don’t think you can beat it at this price.
Makes me curious what Emotiva can do with a bigger budget.

[Gruntslayer]

looking to buy an a 100 non basx just for speakers, really wondering if there is a notable upgrade from a cheap receiver, even though the receiver has more power (120watts) , it uses a very cheap power board and very cheap low farad filter caps. hopefully its a pretty big upgrade. from 2004 30$ sony receiver lol @blackjakals @M0N @Nick_Mimi

[Nick_Mimi]

Are you talking about the TA-100 receiver /dac/amp unit? If so i am not familiar with that piece. The bassX A-100 is what i use and continue to enjoy.
At under $250 shipped for a brand new unit i personally find it one of the best values available. It’s not perfect by any means but has solid useful features. As long as the rest of your equipment is of similar price and quality i don’t see an issue. Good luck

[Gruntslayer]

I am talking about the A-100 mini X i should have clarified. i believe its the exact same speaker output section. Thanks, just looking for an upgrade to the sound, and i dont think im letting the UB5 shine with my cheap receiver.

[Nick_Mimi]

On their site and can’t find that particular model. If all it lacks is the HP output it should provide similar sonic performance, which as i stated if using similar quality and price components should perform well

[blackjakals]

In my opinion, it’s a noticeable improvement. I switched from my older 90 W per channel Sony receiver and it immediately sounded better.

[Chifiguy]

Question- cranking the volume knob past about 60% I start to get noticeable hiss- whether it’s my Dekoni Blues or my 880 600s. If I remember correctly Zeos makes a point about how you get none of that on the 880s because that’s the amount of resistance there is. I’ve tried feeding it with both my Grace SDAC and iFi Zen and get the same result. Now, my Zen is USB powered, and I can get a iFi Power Supply 50% off plus shipping right now. Will that solve my problem? Is it because I’ve only ever tried using a USB powered DAC or is it simply by nature of the fact that it’s a fucking Speaker amp with the jumpers installed and that’s never going away regardless of the DAC quality/power type?

[MazeFrame]

@Chifiguy

Question- cranking the volume knob past about 60% I start to get noticeable hiss-

The bias-current hiss should be constant volume.
Just checked on mine and the hiss on mine gets louder only after 3 o’clock.

Maybe try unplugging everything except headphones and power and listen to what should be a near constant volume hiss.

@Chifiguy

is it simply by nature of the fact that it’s a […] Speaker amp

Yeah. It is a speaker amp first, headphone amp second.
Might still want to make sure it is not deffective.

[Chifiguy]

I definitely don’t think it’s defective. The same thing happened both DACs going into my SP200 at a certain level of volume, but once I went balanced from the Zen to the SP200 it really took away the background and made it a lot quieter, partly by virtue of the fact I didn’t have to have the volume up on the SP200 as much anymore. That’s why I’m more convinced it’s just the noise RCA from a USB powered DAC

[MazeFrame]

@Chifiguy

The same thing happened both DACs going into my SP200

Sounds like a ground loop honestly.

[Wootehfook]

Thoughts on no-jumper vs jumper?

I’ve purchased this amp to hook up a set of speakers in addition to headphones. I primarily listen on my T60rp Argons. If I get all of the volume that I need out of the box, is there any other advantage to installing the jumpers on this?

[SandboxGeneral]

No, it’s my opinion that this ‘page 11’ mod really isn’t worth it due to the severe amount of noise it puts to headphones. Have a look at these two posts of mine from December.

Beyerdynamic DT880 600Ω

Here are my thoughts on this headphone. I wrote this as a review for my own website, so I am posting it here and it’s written that way, so forgive some of the stuff most people here already know. I bought the Beyerdynamic DT880 600Ω and the Emotiva BasX A-100 speaker amp a few months ago to find out for myself what all the fuss was about from ZeosPantera, an audio reviewer I enjoy following on YouTube. I have two pair of DT880’s, a 250Ω and a 600Ω version. I’m going to be talking about the 600…

Beyerdynamic DT880 600Ω

This morning I did another test using the Schiit Jotunheim on high gain. I was too tired last night to turn on my Windows PC or get behind the desk again to swap some cables around. The differences in this test compared to the other three amps are I am using the Schiit multibit DAC module inside the Jotunheim and while playing the same tracks as yesterday, they are on my Windows box and through Foobar. Still looking at the same things as before, noise floor and power here. With the Jotunheim …

[Nick_Mimi]

Don’t think of it as noise…It’s more a classic 50’s hi-fi sound signature…

[tehmasterer]

Unlike others who claim hissing at knob levels below what would literally damage your hearing it’s a delight and I think i would much rather own the Bas X A-100 + 880 600ohm + 990 600hm that the 1990’s as I listen for fun and enjoyment and have the sundaras as a stopgap between fun and critical…
That being said it’s an improvment over my Magni 3 as far as quality goes (I use it soley for my DT990’s) but it’s fucking scary to have hooked up for a $350 set of cans since 20% of knob is 100% volume, so I keep my Sundaras and my incoming 6XX on schiit magni 3 and use an Aux switch.

Worth every penny just to drive my DT990 600ohms though and I surely will be getting more hard to drive headphones in the future to experiment and take advantages, as well as maybe some actual audiophile speakers to replace my Z906 system now that I have this amp hanging around.