I have had pretty much all the generations of Emotiva amplifiers. I would say they are very excellent for the money and actually compete at a higher level. However, everyone likes a slightly different sonic signature.
As far as the comments about "clinical and brightness", I will agree on some situations. The "Gen 2" switchable Class A/AB circuit had a compromise in the Class AB setting where the bias circuit wasn't optimized and you actually got waveform crossover distortion (when the waveform transitions between positive and negative polarity). This caused a slight bright edge to the sound. Also, stock XPA amps were on the bright/harsh side, but this can be fixed with fuse upgrades. XPR amps were slightly soft and cold sounding due to the stock fuses they had in those amps (but were voiced slightly warmer than the XPA). Gen 3 is very good, but not as good as previous generations because of switching power supply. It's lacking the bass punch/power and it just doesn't quite sound as real/there as the previous generation.
As far as the comments about "clinical and brightness", I will agree on some situations. The "Gen 2" switchable Class A/AB circuit had a compromise in the Class AB setting where the bias circuit wasn't optimized and you actually got waveform crossover distortion (when the waveform transitions between positive and negative polarity). This caused a slight bright edge to the sound. Also, stock XPA amps were on the bright/harsh side, but this can be fixed with fuse upgrades. XPR amps were slightly soft and cold sounding due to the stock fuses they had in those amps (but were voiced slightly warmer than the XPA). Gen 3 is very good, but not as good as previous generations because of switching power supply. It's lacking the bass punch/power and it just doesn't quite sound as real/there as the previous generation.