Emotiva announces passive Airmotiv speakers for the living room

Better known for its budget pro monitors, audio company Emotiva has announced its first range of consumer-level surround speakers.

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Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.

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Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.

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Ty Pendlebury

Dec. 8, 2015 12:57 p.m. PT

2 min read

Internet audio company Emotiva has announced the new Airmotiv range of unpowered surround speakers for the living room using technologies such folded ribbon tweeters and Kevlar drivers borrowed from its well-regarded professional monitors.

The comsumer-level Airmotiv range, due to be unveiled at CES 2016, includes fronts, center speakers, surround speakers and subwoofers with prices starting at $249. Unlike the company's powered monitors the new range requires the use of an amplifier or receiver.

Emotiva's new standmount speaker, the $299 passive Airmotiv B1, looks very similar to the powered Airmotiv 5S, and includes the same folded-ribbon Airmotiv tweeter and 5.25-inch Kevlar driver.

In addition to the standmounter, the company will also release the three-way Airmotiv C1 center channel ($249), the Airmotiv E1 ($249 pr.) surround speaker with 4-inch Kevlar driver, and the Airmotiv T1 three-way tower ($798 pr.) with a 3-way ported design with dual 6.5inch Kevlar woofers, one 5.25-inch Kevlar mid-range, and Airmotiv tweeter.

The company will also unveil the SB1 $499 passive soundbar with left right and center channels utilizing six 4-inch woven Kevlar woofers and three Airmotiv tweeters.

Emotiva will have two subwoofers on display at the show including the Airmotiv S10 ($499) with a 350W amp powering a 10-inch long throw woofer in conjunction with a 10-inch passive radiator, and the Airmotiv S12 ($699) with dual 12-inch drivers (powered and passive) and a 500W Class A/B amplifier.

The company will also reveal new AV components including the Emersa EMP-1 7.1 channel preamp processor ($899), Emersa EPA-1 stereo preamp ($599), Emersa EPI-1 integrated amplifier ($799) and three new power amps.

The speakers are constructed from MDF while the angled baffles are CNC machined and painted. Unlike the pro monitors these speakers come with magnetic grilles (not pictured).

Our take? Given how good the Emotiva 4S and 5S powered speakers are, especially for the money, we look forward to testing these speakers in a home theater setup. Current favorites ELAC might have an Airnmotiv-sized problem on their hands.

The new speakers, subwoofers and components will be unveiled at CES in Las Vegas in January 2016 with availability to be confirmed.

Correction, Thursday at 5 p.m. EST: An earlier version of this story incorrectly claimed the speakers were constructed of plastic and that they came without grilles.