I'm quite certain that Gene has put out the request to Emotiva. Unfortunately, Audioholics relies upon manufacturers supplying review units - they aren't able to just go out to stores or purchase online and review actual production units "off the shelf".
Emotiva has all of their products made for them in China. When the number of units they have ordered is completed, they are shipped over in a container by boat. This is why you'll often see Emotiva products "out of stock" or with a "ships on [fill in the date]" when you visit their product pages.
Many of the units - sometimes ALL of the units - in those shipping containers are already spoken for by customers who have pre-ordered. What few units remain, Emotiva prefers to keep on hand so that they can fill incoming orders while they wait for the next container of units to be physically built in China.
Bottom line is that Emotiva literally doesn't have many units to spare and they far prefer to sell what units they do have, rather than allocate any of them as "review units" that they basically have to give away for free. Reviewers keep those "review units" for months at a time sometimes, so that's literally cash out of Emotiva's pockets.
Companies like Emotiva operate on razor-thin margins and depend upon positive cash-flow to keep their business running. We can certainly argue that reviews bring in new customers and ultimately help to grow any business. But regardless of the fact that pretty much ANY publicity is GOOD publicity, many, MANY companies remain wary of reviews because they worry that even a single critcism could COST them sales.
As consumers, it's often hard to empathize and understand why business owners do what they do. But it can be a different kettle of fish when it's YOUR business and YOUR baby. When you're like Emotiva, and you're essentially already selling every unit that your partners in China can make, and you are all too well aware that there will be gaps - sometimes months long - between containers full of your products that customers are waiting for, suddenly, the idea of giving away a "review pair" of speakers for free and possibly risking criticism in the review just doesn't sound so appealing.
Don't get me wrong - I'm with you! I'd love to see professional reviews with reliable measurements and comparisons to other competing products for EVERYTHING! And despite the fact that some products will inevitably wind up being criticized or "ranked" lower than their competition, I strongly believe that virtually ANY exposure of your brand's name and products ultimately just drives awareness and that ultimately just creates more customers!
But it's not our business that we own, it's not our products that we worked for years to develop and manufacture, it isn't our review website and it isn't our money that we see walking out the door in the form of a "review sample". It can be frustrating, but I have a great solution:
Take advantage of the return policies that are offered and also take advantage of the used market and websites like AudiogoN that specialize in used audio equipment trades and sales. Yes, it usually costs some relatively small amount of money to ship products back to retailers. And yes, there are always some risks with buying used gear and you're unlikely to sell your used gear without taking a bit of a finacial hit vs. what you paid. But if you really look at it, it's a pretty small asking price in order to get the BEST sort of information and education possible - listening and comparing for yourself, with your own ears, in your own room!
It's fun, it's not really that expensive if you actually work it out. If you can afford things like a daily morning coffee, going out to eat a few times a week and going to the movies every other weekend, then you almost certainly have enough money to handle the return shipping cost on a pair of speakers, or the cost of buying a used pair of speakers on AudiogoN and then turning around and selling those very same speakers to someone else!
Build up your own "mental library" of speakers that you have actually heard for yourself! There's nothing else like it. And it actually makes reading reviews even MORE enjoyable and helpful because you will have your own pool of knowledge from which you can draw comparisons and understanding that you have truly earned for yourself!
