Emotiva X-Ref Speakers Preview

Emotiva Audio is sort of the king of "We don't care what it looks like; we just care how it sounds." Their amps and processors are attractive in a way that only people worried about value and sound quality appreciate. Their speakers are much the same way. Your spouse might glance at them with a raised eyebrow and say, "Umm...are they really just big, black boxes?" But when you compare them with the alternative with the real wood finish and they see the price difference (not to mention that often the Emotiva's sound better), suddenly they change their tune.

Emotiva's speaker offerings have been making waves in the audio world since they came on the scene a while back. Their newest X-Ref 10 subwoofer just received our Audioholics Bassoholic “Small” room rating. Of course, interest in the rest of the line is high. While we wait for review samples to come in, we've decided to do a bit of an overview of the new line.

To start with, Emotiva has always been about value and they are not compromising that value for the new X-Ref line. The top of the range X-Ref XRT-6.2s will retail for just $999 a pair (only $799 during the introductory period). The cheapest in the line are the XRM-4.1 monitors (bookshelf speakers) at $229 a pair ($183 during introductory period). There are two subwoofers (The X-Ref 10 and the X-Ref 12 - we won't be dealing with these during this preview since we just reviewed one of them), two bookshelf speakers (XRM-4.1 and XRM-6.1), two center channels (XRC-5.2 and XRC-6.2), two towers (XRT-5.2 and XRT-6.2), and a single surround speaker (XRS-4.1). The way the nomenclature works is the X and R stand for X-Ref with the last letter corresponding to type (Tower, Center, Monitor, or Surround). The numbers delineate the size and number of woofers (6.2 equates to dual 6" woofers).

All of the speakers feature an exclusive low-resonance 1" silk dome tweeter. In the towers and the larger bookshelf speakers the tweeter is offset. All of the speakers, except for the centers, are ported with all but the surround speakers have a front-firing slot port near the bottom. The XRS-4.1 has a small, circular port under one of the tweeters. The XRC-6.2 center has two slotted ports, one on either side of the woofers while the XRC-5.2 is the only speaker in the line with a sealed design. All of the long-throw woofers have blended pulp cones, die-cast frames (no cheap stamped baskets here), and butyl rubber surrounds. Emotiva has used flat progressive-rate spiders paired with a vented design, copper-capped pole pieces, and aluminum shorting rings for low-distortion and extended bass.  Their bass drivers have all the right ingredients for making a substantial unit for high performance applications. 

One thing that Emotiva is highlighting with these speaker is their crossover design and overall construction.  The multi-pole asymmetrical crossover uses low distortion air core inductors, precision metalized film capacitors, and oxygen-free copper wire. The enclosures are all constructed out of the industry standard MDF and are said to be rigidly braced. The tower speakers sport a 1" thick front baffle with 3/4" MDF everywhere else. All the speakers (sans the XRM-4.1 bookshelf and the XRS-4.1 surround) have dual binding posts for bi-amping. The removable grilles don't use the trendy magnets, but, we think, this is less important than the performance. From the specifications:

Emotiva XRT-6.2: 

• 40 Hz to 22 kHz +/- 2.5 dB
• 4 ohm nominal impedance
• 88 dB/2.83V/1m
• $999 ($799/pair intro price)
  

Emotiva XRT-5.2:

• 49 Hz to 22 kHz +/- 2.5 dB
• 4 ohm nominal impedance
• 86 dB/2.83V/1m
• $799/pair ($639/pair intro price)
  

Emotiva XRC-6.2:

• 45 Hz to 22 kHz +/- 2.5 dB
• 4 ohm nominal impedance
• 87 dB/2.83V/1m
• $399/each ($319/each intro price)
  

Emotiva XRC-5.2: 

• 74 Hz to 22 kHz +/- 2.5 dB
• 4 ohm nominal impedance
• 87 dB/2.83V/1m
• $299/each ($239/each intro price)
  

Emotiva XRM-6.1:

• 53 Hz to 22 kHz +/- 2.5 dB
• 4 ohm nominal impedance
• 86 dB/2.83V/1m
• $499/pair ($399/pair intro price)
  

Emotiva XRM-4.1: 

• 88 Hz to 20 kHz +/- 3 dB
• 6 ohm nominal impedance
• 85 dB/2.83V/1m
• $229/pair ($183/pair intro price)
  

Emotiva XRS-4.1:

• 80 Hz to 20 kHz +/- 3 dB
• 5 ohm nominal impedance
• 85 dB/2.83V/1m
• $349/pair ($279/pair intro price)
  

For a buck less than a grand MSRP and an extra $200 off that during the introductory period, a low point of 40 Hz is pretty impressive. The only really "issues" we see here are that none of these speakers are particularly easy to drive (though most mid-level receivers should be fine at reasonable volumes as long as there aren't any dramatic impedance dips). Of course, Emotiva IS an amplifier company so perhaps that is by design. We aren't really impressed with the low point of the XRM-4.1 though the small size (8.75" high x 5.5" wide x 6.5" deep) really qualifies it more as a satellite and you should expect to cross over a sub higher than 80Hz. The nice thing about having so many speakers in the same line is that they have been voiced to match each other so that you can pick and choose the size/performance/price that works for you.

A few other things should be noted about the line. First, they have a furniture-grade, 6-layer, hand-rubbed black satin lacquer finish. The center channels are all delineated at LCRs as well which means they can be used on their sides as large bookshelf speakers (a nice feature for those that want three identical speakers up front). The towers have integrated bases with removable carpet spikes. While previous Emotiva surround offerings have been bi-pole or di-pole selectable, the XRS-4.1 are bi-pole only.

Conclusion

Big black boxes. That was your first reaction. It was ours as well. But we've learned through long experience that there is often more to Emotiva products than looks. The new X-Ref speakers look to be no different. Do you want real wood finishes and magnetic grilles? There are plenty of those out there. But if you want maximum performance utilizing quality drive units, crossovers and enclosures paired with a bare-bones price tag, Emotiva is often your best bet. While we'll have to reserve our final judgement for our review, at first blush the X-Ref speakers look very, very good. Well, at least their specs do.  Emotiva appears to have all the right ingredients for Identifying Legitimately High Fidelity Speakers but at price points that won't break an audiophiles wallet.

For more information, please visit www.emotiva.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.