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

[dvjorge]

Hi guys,
I have never hear any Emotiva amplifier because they don't have too much time in the market ??
I am curious about them and would like to know if they can beat Nad, B&K, Rotel, Adcom and other entry level amplifiers. So, any of you that already know them can give me some idea ??
Thanks,
Jorge.

[Mr Peabody]

From the guys here who own the Emo amps say, Emo would be leading in the pack you mentioned.

I did a head to head between the Emo ERC-1 cd player and the NAD c545, the NAD costing more money. The ERC-1 was better in all aspects except for maybe bass response.

I find the Emo sound sterile though. This is probably not an issue for a power amp as much as a source.

[eisforelectronic]

I find the Emo sound sterile though. This is probably not an issue for a power amp as much as a source.

When I first got my Emo setup I thought it sounded very very sterile. However, after changing my interconnects, I love it!!

[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.

[kexodusc]

I have a few NAD, Rotel, and Adcom amps. I like my Emotiva amp more overall, though there are some presentation differences between the brands that lend themselves to certain music more than others.

I don't know much about B&K because I haven't heard much of their gear. Parasound's stuff the last few years has been pretty good though. If price isn't an object I'd recommend Parasound of the bunch you list. I love my Rotel amp, and on some music it's a bit more, well, intimate sounding. Hard to explain. It's not as versatile though.

If money is a concern you can get a lot of value out of Emotiva's amps and maybe make bigger gains investing elsewhere in your system. I would be very wary of anyone who says brand X is better than brand y in every system. Especially at a fraction of the price. Emotiva's big feature is value, a lot of bang for the buck. But they're not making Bryston or Krell gear by any means.