How Emotiva compare to Adcom, Rotel, Nad, Parasound, B&K, Acurus...

[blackraven]

While I have never heard an Emotiva amp, I have heard Rotel, NAD, B&K and Adcom as well as owning a Parasound Halo A21 amp. I think that the Parasound is the best of the bunch and I would have to be convinced that an Emotiva amp would sound better than the A21 from what I have read about the sound of the Emotiva.The Parasound cost about $1200 more, it is very dynamic, detailed and neutral in sound. Bass is fast, deep, controlled and powerful. In fact the overall pace of the amp is fast. It also has XLR and true Balanced circuitry. It runs in class A for the first 10wpc and the amp runs cool even when running my Magnepan 1.6's at loud levels for 2-3 hours at a time. You don't see a lot of used A21's for sale. The review of the A21 says its a giant killer in its price range just as the Emotiva amps are. I don't mean any disrespect for the Emotiva amps by my statements which have to taken with a Big grain of salt because I have never heard one.

I also like the B&K reference series amps. I like their warmer, darker sound. They may not be as resolving as some comparable amps though. Unfortunately, B&K went under.

With that being said, the Emotiva amps are well respected, have excellent spec's and are a lot of bang for the buck. People love them. I would like to hear one.