How good is Emotiva 2 channel gear??

As to the Bryston comparison with Bryston you are paying for a 20 year warranty

Albireo13 - I bought a UPA-2 and a XPA-2 at the same time and compared them. The UPA-2 is a nice little amp (very transparent) but the XPA-2 provides more soundstage width and depth, deeper bass and added head room. I sold the UPA-2 a little while back.

People who spend a lot of money on amps prefer to avoid these threads. I've had a lot of SS amps, from Carver to Rotel and recently Odyssey and currently a Manley Stingray II.

The TRUTH is that it all sounded good without exception. The Stingray sounds best, but it's never a night & day swing. Recently I got to try a XPA-3 and had to admit that it did very well for home theater and music. By "very well" I mean that I would have no issue using it with my Definitive Technology/SVS theater system. For more exotic gear that can bring out the smaller nuances you might want the "higher" end power, but 75% of audio is about personal perception and folks rarely agree on what's best. I think a 300 Oppo CD player sounds better than the 1500 dollar Jolida I had. Go figure.

Most likely you will be impressed and happy with an Emotive amp, even if some people snub it's mid-fi range along with Rotel, Parasound, Outlaw and many others that simply make good music.

Cheers,

Bob

ive had both upa-2 and xpa-2... great power and low/high extension, bass is probably the strong point, very tight and controlled... however, the midrange was severely lacking in my opinion, sounded very dull and lifeless... not very musical imo, better suited for HT use

Mid range can be lifeless on a LOT of good amps when mated to the wrong pre-amp. And most processors are simply weak for musicality. Connected to a Rogue pre-amp the Emotiva does just fine for music. In fact I'm currently about to break in the Emotiva 3 channel model to compare to the well regarded Odyssey.

Cheers,

Bob