Emotiva equipmet, how good is it?

I'm still a neophyte, but I first heard about Emotiva because of their big XSP-1 preamp, which gets great praise across the board. I follow them somewhat because I am quite interested in their PA-1 Class D monoblocks. It's driven by the same ICE power module that all the big names use, their implementation looks elegant both physically and eletrically, and you can't beat the price. I listened to a set at a dealer attached to some Focal Chorus 716's and a REL T5i and they REALLY sang. At their price point, the only real competition I've seen mentioned are the Outlaw M2200, and the argument for them is generally just that they're Class A/B and handle higher-current equipment, like Maggies, better. From my research, Emotiva exists in a VERY competitive market segment, so most of the arguments against them are going to be in relation to brand loyalty and known synergies, not any black mark against their sound or quality (save the people who've had egregiously bad experiences, of which my research has turned up few).

Wow this is all very helpful. I am going to try and audition a few items at my local shop.  They sell the Emotiva and others.  I like some of the other suggestions and am looking at those too.  I also look at the Cambridge AUDIO CXA80 and wondered if anyone had thoughts on this.



Please keep it coming it is good to be educated. 

I currently own an XSP-1 and I just upgraded from my 2 XPA 2 GEN 2  to 2 XPR 2.  The older Emotiva amps had huge trsnsfomers and lots of headroom.  The newer amps all have switch mode power supplies.  I still have both of my XPA 2s with over 2 years warranty left and transferable if anyone is  interested!

I had 2 Emotiva XPA-1 amps.  My late 1970s Amber Stereo 70s in bridged monoblock mode sonically sounded so much better than the XPA-1s, but the Ambers did not provide extra overall oomph that the higher power XPA-1s delivered in my current larger listening room.  I now use Bryston 7B3s, but for the money, Emotivas deliver a pretty good package for the price point.

I’ve been using an Emotiva setup for 3 years and love it. I have a setup close to the initial system that someone else above started with. It’s their XSP-1 stereo pre-amp and the 2nd gen XPA-2 amplifier. Nothing but love for it. FWIW, which probably isn’t much for the internet, a couple buddies and I did a bunch of component head to head listening events. All blind taste testing for ears. When we did the pre-amps, several people picked my XSP-1 as their favorite, most picked a Spectral as the winner. We demoed like 11 pre-amps that people had in their houses either in active use or storage. The XPA-2 amp was similar. Power in spades though compared to some of the smaller high end stuff that people brought to the get together.

I have the Sherbourn PA-50 which is pretty much they same as the small Emotiva amp you’re looking at. It’s a nice little amp that’ll power most any smaller bookshelf. For its footprint it’s hard to beat.