Montreal Audiofest 2024

All prices listed in this post are in US dollars.

What can you get for $4750? A lot, apparently.

That was the retail price of the whole system set up in the Emotiva room. The system was all-Emotiva: a pair of Airmotiv XT3 loudspeakers ($1999/pr), a 550Wpc XPA-DR2 power amplifier ($1899), an XDA-3 DAC/preamp ($699), and a CMX-6+ AC line filter with surge protection ($199). Cables were also by Emotiva but are not included in the $4750 price. They don’t add much to the price, however.

This may have been my biggest surprise of the show. The sound I heard didn't sound "budget" by any means. On music streamed losslessly from Apple Music, the sound was substantial, powerful, detailed, with a spacious soundstage. Images were solid and tactile, transients were quick, and vocals sounded natural, with no sibilance.

Emotiva has raised the value bar very high. Not just good for the money but good by any standard.