Rogue Metis vs. Emotiva USP-1

Recently I posted my review of the Emotiva amps vs. some more expensive amps. Last night I played with the Emotiva USP-1 preamp that costs under 400 bucks. I mated it with a Odyssey Stratos and Rotel 1090. The pre-amp war was on and I compared it to was the very sweet Rogue Metis.

While Secrets of Home Theater had already posted a impressive review for the inexpensive Emotiva, I still doubted it would be any good.

I'll cut right to the point. The Emotiva is NOT as good as the Rogue, at least with the Stratos or Rotel. The Rogue had the ability to soften some of the SS brightness and made both amps sweeter sounding. Maybe this is an unfair contest and a shootout with another SS pre makes more sense.

But here's the problem: The Emotiva was VERY close, and it seemed to produce a more neutral sound, where the Rogue sometimes gave a bit of midrange bloat to some vocal recordings. Bass seemed tighter and more detailed and the Emotiva also had a lower noise floor. Mated to the Odyssey I really felt that the USP-1 was doing more than a good job. I would have easily believed I was listening to a 1500 dollar pre. On top of that the Emotiva seemed to work better with my MJ Acoustics 150 II subwoofer since it has it's own bass management built in. It's really quite a bit more flexible and I think some would actually prefer it to the Metis depending on their speakers and tastes. At the end I felt that the Rogue Metis was somehow more than the sum of it's qualities and more musical...but I wouldn't be unhappy with the USP-1 either!

Bottom line: For a SS pre-amp this thing has no business costing 399.00! It's just crazy. Frankly it's cost will scare off a lot of audio buffs, but that's their loss. A product like this makes me seriously question the obviously inflated costs of like-featured products with better known names.

Don't be afraid. Listen to a USP-1 before springing for a preamp that costs 3 times more. I probably won't buy one since I like the Rogue (my second one!), but WOW....

Rob