EMOTIVA BasX A-150 Power Amplifier

The A-150 delivers 75Wpc into 8 ohms and 150Wpc into 4 ohms—respectable numbers and plenty of power for most people. The amp is rather compact at only 17″ wide and 3 1/8″ high, and weighs a relatively light 15.5 pounds. The front panel has two blue LEDs, one for each channel, and the power button glows blue when the amp is active and amber orange when it’s on standby. I like the minimalism here, with only two bumped-out corners as decoration, and the Emotiva logo, the product line, and the component name on the faceplate. Not beautiful, but serviceable. Setup was a breeze. I used my Cambridge Audio CXA80 as the preamp, so all I had to do was swap the speaker cables and run some RCAs. The A-150 uses a two-prong power cable, which means that your fancy upgraded three-prong cable won’t work with this unit. Not the end of the world, since there are nice two-prong cables available, but worth noting. I haven’t tumbled down the rabbit hole of power cables just yet, but I won’t pretend that I can resist the siren song forever. Anyway, the binding posts are normal five-ways, not fancy by any means, but effective. There’s a power switch on the back that puts the amp into standby mode where it’ll stay when not in use, and a button on the front to get it up and running. The A-150 is a Class AB design, which is surprising, considering how cool it runs. It was almost cold to the touch, and even after listening to music for at least six hours straight, it barely broke a sweat. I didn’t feel a single bit of heat coming from the chassis in all the time I used it, which probably means it would be happy tucked away on the bottom shelf of an entertainment center. It was also surprisingly quiet, which is important to me. I have a tiny little listening room, so excessively noisy equipment is a big distraction. No problem there, though. Heat and noise are always considerations with an amp, and the A-150 is solid on both fronts.