I have heard that the Emotiva amps are rock solid, def an upgrade from what I purchased. Similar to Hutch, I have a youngster in the house and didn't want to invest in more than I needed. I wanted to hit that sweet spot of beginner pricing and quality. Now I just need to tweak the calibration - the bass is underwhelming on the slate floor in the finished basement at mid to high volumes. My guess is that I have the cross overs for the sub poorly set, going to spend time on Friday going through and re-calibrating. To be honest I ran audyssey on the fronts, sub, and center channel only so the system is far from fully calibrated and I have only put about an hour into it. Wont have time to setup the rest until the weekend.
Regarding Scrappy's comment on the xt audyssey, I also went with the x series just to get this as everywhere I was reading the same comments on how it was far superior to the E-series grade below. Hutch, I am interested in hearing your experience once you get fully setup.
And thanks for all the welcome greetings!