Jon, how many Rotels and Classe's have you owned? Did you compare the sound directly or are you comparing from years old memory? The reason I ask is, most people do exactly that, using memory and not considering the effect of new purchase bias.
Anyway, I'm sure the $2000 XMC sounds good. But so do many $1000-1200 AVRs. I got a Denon AVR 4520 for 1200 and it astounds me at the improvement in sound quality over my old Flagship Onkyo. Plus it has may bells and whistles that the XMC doesn't have and I don't need an amp as it has 150 watts for each of 9 channels.
And Denon's sibling, Marantz, has a processor for the same price as the Emotiva, and again, twice the features including 11.2 channels and Atmos, plus a dealer network if you ever need service instead of spending large dollars to ship it to Emotiva for service. Your choice of course.
Anyway, I'm sure the $2000 XMC sounds good. But so do many $1000-1200 AVRs. I got a Denon AVR 4520 for 1200 and it astounds me at the improvement in sound quality over my old Flagship Onkyo. Plus it has may bells and whistles that the XMC doesn't have and I don't need an amp as it has 150 watts for each of 9 channels.
And Denon's sibling, Marantz, has a processor for the same price as the Emotiva, and again, twice the features including 11.2 channels and Atmos, plus a dealer network if you ever need service instead of spending large dollars to ship it to Emotiva for service. Your choice of course.