Which is better.

Emotiva is low cost, low priced, poorly designed, specified, and manufactured junk although some say that it looks nice.

+1 clearthink. I concur after having owned an Emotiva piece.  Not sound related but the blue light from the equipment can burn your retinas out.  

I owned a Marantz CD-6004 and it was a good CD player. You can find the CD-6006 refurbished at Accessories4less. I haven’t heard the NAD, so can’t say the Marantz is the "best". It’s detailed and a little on the warm side. It’s a solid unit, well built. I thought it sounded great until I compared it to my Marantz KI-Pearl, which didn’t put it to shame, but was clearly better sounding.

As far as Emotiva goes, I think calling it "junk" is a bit harsh. I had a couple of their monoblock amps for a while and own an XPA-5 that’s in my bedroom system. I’ve had it for 4 years now and it has worked flawlessly. I’m using it to drive center and surround speakers, so it’s not being used for critical listening.

@clearthink - perhaps you should troll elsewhere. People here have a better appreciation for reasonable requests for comment/opinions. Yours are along the lines of someone who is just being a child and acting out.

@stereo5 -The unit display can be dimmed at the remote. There are 4 brightness settings accessible from the remote (although it is a reasonable nit to have the light intensity available from the front panel and not just the remote)

@big_greg - I ended up going with the Emotiva becuase the Marantz unit would take as long as 2-3 months to arrive from Japan (this covid crap has disrupted supply chains all around the world and has shipping stuck offshore in perhaps the worlds longest queue). I received mine on Friday and have enjoyed it greatly! The sound is amazing and has brought a nuance to many of my favorite pieces (Rippingtons - Black Diamond/Moon Lighting, Dave Grusin - Migration/CInemagic, Miles Davis Pieces of Spain/Bitches Brew, Holst - The Planets)
The dealer I purchased the Emotiva from gave me a price break of $50.00 USD. I was insistent on buying locally to help out local businesses that were being impacted by the regional shutdown of the West Coast. The owner showed me his appreciation and patience, of which I am grateful. BTW - if any one is in Portland, Home Video Library has a very good selection of Klipsch, Emotiva, Yamaha, Marantz components. Ok, shameless plug over.

The big thing I have noticed so far is a crispness of the percussive aspects of a recording. This also plays into picking up the subtle finger plucks on a guitar/harp as well as the draw of a bow across a cello/violin. Whereas with my (former) Carver unit, the plucks were present, but had a slightly muffled, almost dull quality to them. This is quite the opposite. Overall, I am very impressed with the 6 hrs I have spent with the unit.
P.S. - For those who think I am being overly critical of clearthink/millercarbon, I am 60+ years old. I deal with professional children on a daily basis at my job. I dont need to deal with them in here.

@jcipale,

I am happy you are enjoying your Emotiva CD player. My comment regarding the bright display was valid as the piece I had did not allow to dim or shut off display. Plus, the unit I had, XDA1 DAC was extremely bright and unlistenable to me after an hour as extreme fatigue settled in. You mention a crispness to the ERC4 so I guess their equipment is still bright. While you may like that presentation, many do not including myself. IMHO Emotiva is “pretend” high end. Good luck with the player