XTZ A2-300

Many AV receivers can now decode more channels than their onboard power amps can actually handle. Ed Selley auditions a stereo power pusher that's ready to help out

- Ed Selley

SOMETIMES A THROWAWAY line in an equipment review belies the complexity of actually achieving something in reality. A significant number of AV receivers we've looked at over the last few years are equipped with seven channels of amplification but have decoding for nine (or more). And somewhere in these reviews there's often the instruction to ‘just add a stereo power amp’ to make use of those extra decoded channels.

The catch is that stereo power amplifiers are quite niche things and, more often than not, expensive to the point where they can frequently exceed the cost of the receiver. Enter XTZ with an affordable solution.

The A2-300 is the smaller of two stereo power amplifiers that the Swedish manufacturer sells through its direct retail model (you buy from the XTZ website, specifying your desired mains power connection). It’s a half-width design, allowing two to work side by side in a single rack space, or one to be easily added to your AV shelf.

Don’t be fooled into assuming that the power on offer is in any way limited though. The A2-300 owes its somewhat unromantic name to the fact it claims no less than 300W into both channels over a 4ohm load, which halves to 150W into an 8ohm one. It is, in short, volcanically powerful, although you should note these figures come with a quoted distortion of 1% THD.