Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Outlaw and Emotiva products...?

Back to this question, I was reading the write up by Tom Andry of Audioholics on the RPA-1 (the older version of the RPA-2) in which he compares the RPA-1 to a Denon 2307CI. Here's a paragraph that sort of answers your question...

"Still, you don't need to do a blind test to know the differences between a horse and a cow. The Emotiva Audio RPA-1 kept pushing the TK-5CT's and the Usher Audio s-520's to their limits rather than holding them back as the Denon did. I suppose "holding them back" is too harsh a term. The Denon faired well with these harder to drive speakers, much better than I would have thought. I was impressed overall with how loud and clean the Denon played but it really wasn't much of a contest with a dedicated two-channel amp that weighs more than almost two of these receivers put together!"


Now obviously he was using less efficient speakers than the M80's, but the point is separates shine if you're really going for ALL OUT performance. Anything 90% and below you would probably be fine with a quality reciever like a Denon. But if you're really into shattering your ear drums, or you want TONS of headroom to shake your house right off of it's foundation during the bomb blasts in your favorite movies... then you should look into getting an amp to truely drive your speakers to their limits.