Emotiva not so good

I have had many Emotiva and Sherbourn  products over the years and have enjoyed every one of them for the price paid.  I still use an xda-2 dac and a Sherborne CD-1 as my player.  It’s the one CD player that I have had that I do not feel the need to run through the dac.  I also have a Sherborn Pre-1 preamp which is basically a Emotiva Usp-1 without the bass crossover but does have excellent XLR outputs.  The remotes for all of them are some of the best made I’ve used.  i had a Xpa-200 amp as well as the Sherbourn 2-160.  Both were solid performers.  Say what you want but you generally have to spend a lot more than the cost of the Emotiva gear to actually see dramatic differences in sound quality. 

There is no way that Emotiva is today's Adcom or Hafler.  In at least Adcom's case, they were designed from the ground up by an audio god, Nelson Pass.  Emotiva?  Typically ordered from a factory in China, and then assembled in the US.  

The other idea expressed by Jax that you have to spend a lot more than Emotiva's prices to get dramatic differences in sound quality I must also take issue with.  Both of Schiit Audio's amps have far superior SQ than Emotiva and at 699 and 799 are cheaper than Emotiva's XPA line.  Adcom's current line up also measures quite a lot better than Emotiva's XPA line, albeit at somewhat higher prices.  Outlaw Audio's multi channel amps also measure better and sound better, take it from personal experience.

In fact there are several companies now making amps that challenge Emotiva's price/performance levels, and some of those are Class D designs.  I'll disclose that I was a true blue Emotiva fanboy, but got the shock of my young life when I swapped in a Parasound Halo amp.  Putting aside one's fanboyism is the first step in realizing the world is not Emotiva blue.

Well said!

Years ago I had a home cinema system entirely made by Emotiva, then I decided to also create a 2-channel audio system entirely Emotiva, with Klipsch speakers.
Shortly thereafter I understood how badly the Emotiva electronics sounded in terms of timbre correctness.
Needless to say, it was immense displeasure and I soon sold everything.

I have to say my experience with Emotiva has not been good. I am in the process of sending back my second sound processor.  This last one, the XMC-2 was used for less than 10 hours. A customer service representative suggested they were making a significant accommodation, above company policy, by sending me a UPS shipping label. My previous processor had difficulties recognizing my AppleTV. Hardly an obscure product for a home theater. The representative at Emotiva at the time, literally told me that if I wanted a product that would work right out of the box, I should consider one of the more commercial brands like Pioneer. I'm not joking. If anyone wants to buy an XMC-2 that will be coming directly from warranty repair, please DM me. I'm open to offers. Tired of dealing with this brand. I gave it more than one shot.