Emotiva amplifiers review/experience?

I have an XPA-2. I'd say it's a shade less transparent in the upper midrange than the very best -- it's a sweet sounding amp with immense reserves, but it has a very slight hint of fine grain. For the money, I don't think it can be touched.

Just about any gear of this sort will last quite a while. Eventually, caps will start to go, sooner if less expensive parts are used. But caps are easy to replace and all amps need to have it done at some point, albeit it's going to happen years later in a Bryston.

Critical precision resistors can also drift, but this is true in any equipment. They too can be replaced.

All of which is to say that I wouldn't worry about longevity. I wouldn't worry about resale price, either, if they're good now, they will be good in the future, and so they'll retain reasonable value. And they're popular enough that they won't be an orphan brand that nobody has ever heard of and potential buyers don't recognize.

To me, the real question is whether you want to spend significantly more for a relatively small increase in sound quality. I don't think there's any way to answer that short of listening yourself. But I can say that the reaction to their sound quality has generally been enthusiastic. Typical would be these are amazingly good for the money, though not quite the equal of (insert super-expensive amp here). It's my personal assessment as well. Another way to put it is that if you're familiar with the sound of large, modern class AB bipolar amps of conventional design, that's pretty much it. But the big amp grain is very light and I actually find it a sweet amp, with just that very minor grain to separate them from amps that have mostly lower-order harmonic distortion.

Because they have a money-back guarantee, if you decide to return them, you'll be out only shipping cost (for a very heavy package) and the work of unpacking and packing them (these things are heavy!).

Ejman, I can't answer that since I haven't seen the circuit. I guess that sort of thing can happen with any device, no matter how good -- they might stop making an output transistor, what have you. As you say, 10-20 years from now it probably won't matter if they do. But in my experience, anyway, the caps are usually what go, and they're easily replaced. The longevity of capacitors varies dramatically and a company like Bryston is going to use very long-lived (and expensive) ones. But really, 10-20 years from now, won't there be something better along anyway? Like Magfan, I keep using stuff for many years -- I just retired the Hafler DH-220 that I bought some 30 years ago. I could refurbish it, but it isn't really worth it -- the Hafler was good for its time, but amp design has improved since then. And as you say, by then, at this price, it doesn't really matter. After 20 years, your Emotiva will have cost you $35 a year, less if you can sell it used.

Utley, yes, I'd consider the monoblocks. I doubt you'll be calling on their full power, since the 1.7's will start to sound edgy before that. But arguably, all that power reserve pays off in better regulation where they do play, and keeps them out of the range where distortion starts to increase. I haven't heard the XPA-1's, but the user reviews I've seen are raves.

Utley -- Yes, there could definitely be overkill. I doubt you'll use all the power the monoblocks have. So after that, you're talking about subtleties of sound that depend on the amp model. And I don't know whether you'd hear them (or I'd hear them), or whether they'd matter to you. Also -- if you don't need the power, it might make more sense to consider a more expensive amp with the power of the XPA-2. But having heard about a zillion amps over the years, I'd say that a more expensive amp isn't going to buy you all that much.

Nordic, I have a MOSFET amp here, an old Hafler, and they shake out very much as you suggest.

I'd say you're completely right. My oil-filled radiator does that, clicks as it expands and contracts. I would *not* tolerate that in an audio amplifier.

I've never heard it either. My XPA-2 doesn't do it.

Elem, I've noticed some very faint grain in the highs of my XPA-2. (My old Hafler, by way of contrast, is grainless, with the rounder MOSFET sound.)

True, but we're talking $2300 for the Parasound vs. $700 for an XPA-2. So we're talking different price classes. An XPA should be easy to sell when it comes time to upgrade. Meanwhile, it's good enough so that I think just about anyone would be happy with it.

I also understand that the XPA-2 sounds better than the XPA-3 (and the XPA-1 better than the XPA-2).

Anyway, the A21 is definitely well-regarded and would be high on my list of budget amps (relatively speaking, of course). I've always been a fan of MOSFET's which seem to me to have some of the liquidity of tubes. I've also heard that the HCA-1500 is not that far from the A21.