Great question,

One we all ponder every time we tweak our respective gear. Hence, why I chimed in as I have heard everything from an old Denon $100 receiver up to Pass labs power the Triton Ones. The Emotiva (to my ears and several others) sounded closer to the receiver than the Pass labs, and hence my descriptor of "Entry Level" The Rogue and Peachtree gets you 90% there, then the law of diminishing returns applies.

The Rogue Sphinx is HIFI performance for an entry level price for a HiFi integrated amp. (no dac)
The Peachtree 220se is definetly not entry level price with a 2K price point, so they both should best the Emotiva as they are 2x -3x the price of an XPA2.
Still have yet to listen to the Tritons with a high end SET amp to see how it sounds.

TJ

Winefix,

Thank you for your insight. I always appreciate your input. While most of us dabble with this stuff, you get to do this everyday for hours on end. No doubt, you have the great benefit of being able to listen to a lot of great gear in multiple combinations. You're truly blessed.

When it comes to subjective listening and A to B comparisons, there are so many variables. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to dispute the results of your recent amplifier comparison. One could discuss sources, cables, power, listening preferences, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. I will say that I am excited that Emotiva will finally get the benefit of side by side comparisons with other boutique brand gear.

When auditioning the GET towers and trying to decide between the T1s and T2s, I had the benefit of listening to them on a number of amplifiers. I listened to Mac, Rogue, Peach Tree, and Hegel. In my listening, the Hegel was the best amplifier. I believe the Rogue and Peach Tree balance out some of the issues with class D amps by putting tubes in the signal path. A possible explanation for the results of your listening test. Historically speaking, class D amps have not done well. I'm glad they are on the rise as I would prefer a more efficient and lighter weight amp all other things equal. Peach Tree and Rogue are both great brands that I have considered.

I recently purchased my first Emotiva amp: an XPA-5. Upon initial listen, I was not impressed. Shipping was so fast that I had to go out and buy some RCA cables from a big box store. These cables had a name that sounds like pocket dish. Needless to say, they were garbage but I was in a pinch and wanted to listen to my new amp. Between the pocket dish RCAs and my 14 guage speaker wire, things were not sounding up to snuff. I was warned by a trusted advisor that Emotiva amps needed a little time to "break in" and not to do any critical listening for a little while. While my T1s sounded more dynamic and "larger", something was missing in the mid-range. I was regretting my decision and missing the sweet mids of my Integra receiver.

Fast forward a week with new RCAs, 12-guage wire, and about 20 hours of use and things are dramatically different. The XPA sounds terrific. I have an old Denon receiver, and AVR 2801, and I can assure everyone that the XPA-5 sounds nothing like it. I find the Emotiva to be neutral, dynamic, revealing, and an exceptional value. The bass is more powerful, the treble is more open and airy, the depth of the sound stage much deeper, the imaging much more convincing than my Integra. Bottom line, it sounds great! Are there better sounding amplifiers to be had? Of course. I have no doubt that I would thoroughly enjoy both Rogue and Peach Tree offerings but the Emotiva is a tremendous value and can hold its own against anything I've auditioned.

To put this analogy another way, the Emotiva is a Corvette. Comparing it to Ferraris (Pass Labs), Lamborghini (Krell), and Aston Martin (Bryston) might find it lacking in some way; however, for daily driving, you get 99.9% of the way to sports car exhilaration with the Corvette. It is certainly no Toyota Prius ($100 Denon). If you performed double blind listening tests on Emotiva versus more prestigious brands, I'd bet many would not be able to tell the difference. Fewer still would find the difference worth the money.

After my first experience with Emotiva, I'm confident that they will match up favorably and sell well at audio dealers. I just hope that dealers don't stack the cards against them due to lower profit margins. Just like GET, you can certainly spend more to impress your friends and neighbors, but you get great sound and value for very reasonable prices.

Anyways, thanks again for your input and sharing your wealth of experience with us. Peach Tree and Rogue are both great brands and I would like to bring each home to do a side by side comparison. I have no doubt I would enjoy them all: like driving a Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Aston Martin. Please keep posting your experiences so that we can benefit from them. Happy listening!

Cheers,

T Cobe

P.S. Did you pick up the SCXXL yet? I know we were both vocal here that this was needed.

Nice post T Cobe,

Thanks for the background, cars are a great analogy and I feel the same about audio components as it depends what you are looking for.

For the A/B comparisons, Everything was the fastidiously the same (cables, source, song, volume)
wanted to keep guessing and chance out of the equation completely. We were able to hear right away the differences.
(I recently did AB comparisons the same way with USB cables and could NOT tell the difference)

My best recommendation to anyone is to get loaner units into your actual space with your speakers as room interaction is a huge part of the equation. The best improvement I have ever seen in my theater after speakers was calibrating and placing cotton panels exactly where needed. This eliminated my slap echo, and instruments separated and floated like never before.

As for the the new Center channel, I have not heard it yet, I couldn't wait and so have been using a Martin Logan Stage and it is playing nice with the Triton Ones. That is an amazing center and best I have ever heard, but with a steep price ($3k)

When I get a chance I will sign out the the GE super center XXL from my local dealer for a few days, and do a full comparison, as I would like to keep it all in the family !! (And save a couple grand)

TJ

TJ,

Thanks for the reply and follow up info. Still curious if there were tubes anywhere in the signal path when listening to the Emotiva. My XPA-5 is very smooth in my set up and I do not experience any fatigue at all but this is obviously very subjective. Thanks again.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Hi again,

No tubes in signal path when I listened to the XPA2 and XPA3, both are GEN2 and 100+ hours on them

The Rogue has tubes and the Peachtree has a tube buffer stage, but I dont hear a difference with it on vs off. The class D amps themselves have a warm signature to them in these two models.

TJ

TJ,

Do you have a pre/pro with tubes that you can try with the Emotiva to see how that influences things? Curious if putting tubes in the path somewhere would smooth things out and get you back on par with Peachtree and Rogue. How would you compare them with other class A/B amps at your store? Thanks again.

Cheers,

T Cobe