Emotiva amplifiers review/experience?

agree with colorfulpellets et. al.--emotiva has tended to be dismissed by the (apparently) uninitiated as "home theater" gear, whatever that means. i have noticed of late that emotiva seems to coming into vogue on these pages--lots of favorable comparisons to pricier gear, fewer dismissive comments. what i most admire about 'em is their business model--like a lot of folks they do the make-it-in-china-and sell-it-direct thing, but they also understand the importance of aesthetics, customer service and promotion. they fully deserve whatever success they're experiencing.

Aren't the Emotiva's cheap Bryston knock-offs? I read that somewhere...

Why would anyone knock off bryston? I mean, if you're going to parrot a big bad power amp design, wouldn't you pick something more worthy of cloning than bryston?
For instance, Krell or Dynaudio or Boulder or Goldmund??
Think, Dave...THINK.

I could think of worse amps to clone.......though i don't believe Emotiva is a clone.

Bryston, eh? I always thought Emotiva was going for a McIntosh vibe. Some of their older model amps even had glowing blue voltage gauges.

As for quality, I'm not sure. I actually own a USP-1 preamp, which so far has been a great piece of equipment--very quiet and linear with good build quality. That said, according to some recent threads on the Emotiva forum, their cd players have literally been going up in flames on people.