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chadnliz

Senior Audioholic
The more you research this company it makes you wonder, it is noted by many for its price, features and looks, also mentioned are some complaints of sound quality and that in particular the amps have alot of compettion at the price point that sound as good or better, also this young company should give some pause before purchase........not that there is any poor reputation building but it is a bit too early to tell. As a Parasound, Lexicon and Rotel owner I would love to find gear that competes for a entry level price, time will tell. This is no doubt a great starter set-up for folks upgrading from the reciever camp and I hope the hype holds up.......I also hope to see more non-biased reviews, hearing from owners tells part of the story but you should expect these owners to praise what they spent hard earned cash on.
 
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chadnliz

Senior Audioholic
Nope, NAD has a long history of real world priced dependable, great performing gear, my father owned NAD in the early 80's. As far asperformance goes I couldnt say just yet but some have said the amps have an odd signature sound that they take issue with, NAD usually gets great reviews across the board and if it comes down to reputation there is no contest but in time Emo gear could be considered great gear at great prices, so far it doesnt look that bad but not good enough for me to chance it just yet.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
you guys put emotiva apples and apples with nad?
Amps: Yes, but only in terms of build quality and sound quality reproduction.
...Not in terms of prestige, price, or power output (200WPC Emotiva may be less power output than a 160WPC NAD because NAD may under-spec their amps).

Pre-pros: NAD may have better specs than Emotiva. NAD prepros may have crosstalk of -95dB (Emotiva -70dB), flatter frequency response, lower THD+N, and greater SNR. However, how this translate to actual sound quality, I don't know. But I would have to say, NO, I would not put Emotiva pre-pros apples and apples with NAD.
 
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dan001

Audioholic Intern
i see..i can purchase a nad 218...225wpc x2 for about 600 dollars used.. good condition..i have a yammie 3800...so...may use nad to drive fronts..tho, dont know how that would mesh with rest of sysytem...my sub etc..but...for a few hundred dollars more..that 5 channel emotiva...tho that would lay waste the yammie
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
i see..i can purchase a nad 218...225wpc x2 for about 600 dollars used.. good condition..i have a yammie 3800...so...may use nad to drive fronts..tho, dont know how that would mesh with rest of sysytem...my sub etc..but...for a few hundred dollars more..that 5 channel emotiva...tho that would lay waste the yammie
The NAD is tempting, but also keep in mind that in the world of electronics, nothing is guaranteed. With any used amps, we don't how long they will last.

Emotiva makes excellent quality products (build quality, fit and finish are all FIVE STARS) and they give you 5 years parts and labor.

The Yammy should be an excellent pre-pros. Taxing the amps inside the Yammy to it's limits may cause some overall adverse effects.

I would use the Yammy only as a pre-pros and the XPA-5 as the amp.
 
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gus6464

Audioholic Samurai
From the reviews I have read of Emotiva amps they actually over state their power output but not by much. NAD on the other hand tends to underrate their gear in terms of power. But that doesn't mean Emotiva is bad, especially for the price you pay.
 
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dan001

Audioholic Intern
to be honest..its the price of the emotiva that kind of bothers me....cuz..absolutely everyone mentions the price..i wonder if they grow enamoured with the product because they paid so little for it..and thus, overlook much of it performance..if that makes sense..i dont want to purchase the emotiva only to find it performs barely better than the factory yammy..where as the nad 218 is a bonafied *** kicker..lol...2 channel tho...lol...too many decisions
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
From the reviews I have read of Emotiva amps they actually over state their power output but not by much. NAD on the other hand tends to underrate their gear in terms of power. But that doesn't mean Emotiva is bad, especially for the price you pay.
This is from Secrets of Home Theater regarding the Emotiva MPS-1: I measured a maximum output from the module of 210 watts RMS into 8 ohms. That is 5% above specification.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_13_1/emotiva-dmc1-ssp-mps1-amp-3-2006-part-4.html

So it all depends on who is doing the measurement.
 
mike c

mike c

Audioholic Warlord
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
did secrets quote THD ratings for the 210w measurement?
scanning that page, I didn't see THD ratings for the max power output.
Absolutely! Look at the graph of THD+N vs. Power Output.
 
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chadnliz

Senior Audioholic
to be honest..its the price of the emotiva that kind of bothers me....cuz..absolutely everyone mentions the price..i wonder if they grow enamoured with the product because they paid so little for it..and thus, overlook much of it performance..if that makes sense..i dont want to purchase the emotiva only to find it performs barely better than the factory yammy..where as the nad 218 is a bonafied *** kicker..lol...2 channel tho...lol...too many decisions

great point, I think you are onto something, and its not at all a slap to Emo owners, its just human nature........with Nad you really cant go wrong and if it were me I would go that route. I see measurements keep flying around and they dont mean all that much.......looking at a graph is no indication of how it sounds and most competent gear will measure reasonably close. Why not try the NAD for mains and use Yammy for the surrounds? I run 2 400 watt amps for my mains a 120W bridged Rotel amp for center and 75 watt "budget" Rotel amp for surrounds and have never over driven the amp or heard clipping with SPL levels easily around 90db with dynamic peaks much higher. By the Way you can get that same Rotel amp for less then $500 used, it is 6 channel and I bridge the center and run four surrounds with left over channels..you can bridge 3 channels if you run 5.1.
 
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