Emotiva amplifiers review/experience?

True, but we're talking $2300 for the Parasound vs. $700 for an XPA-2. So we're talking different price classes. An XPA should be easy to sell when it comes time to upgrade. Meanwhile, it's good enough so that I think just about anyone would be happy with it.

Josh358..A good alternative if one's on a budget is buy a used Parasound HCA-1500 amp. You can pick one up for about $700.00 or $800.00. I bought one new years ago at 50% off from Audio Advisor on a discontinued close out sale. Very musical and powerful. Another good amp to buy used which is much more musical and refined over the Emotiva is the Adcom GFA-5800. There is currently one used on Audigon for $700.00. Weighs about 60 pounds. Very powerful. It was designed by Nelson Pass. There is also one for $650.00 on Ebay.

I had the XPA-3 for about 3 years and experienced what others have mentioned with the Enotiva house sound being somewhat forward and bright. In fact, I got actual sibilance on some recordings. I compared a Parasound A21 in the same system with the same tracks at the same volume, and the A21 produced no sibilance and was superior at all frequencies.

I'd say Emotiva amps do not blend well with all speakers and are decent for the money, but at 4-900 that's not saying much. I ended up selling the Emo amp. The XPA may be a different animal though still somewhat bright with the wrong speakers.

Whoops, I meant to say that the XPA-1 amp may be a different animal.

I also understand that the XPA-2 sounds better than the XPA-3 (and the XPA-1 better than the XPA-2).

Anyway, the A21 is definitely well-regarded and would be high on my list of budget amps (relatively speaking, of course). I've always been a fan of MOSFET's which seem to me to have some of the liquidity of tubes. I've also heard that the HCA-1500 is not that far from the A21.