Well, I replaced my Alpine 7949 head unit and optical cd changer for the empeg unit. With the exception of not having a subwoofer output, I'd say that it easily equals the 7949. (grumble)... Having to add additional components (active crossovers) for my sub wasn't fun. Especially making room for it under the false floor in my Acura.(/grumble)

Subjectively, it's not quite as hot (voltage wise) as the Alpine, so I had to boost my gains a bit, but at the same time, the noise floor is soo low it didn't bother me in the least.

For reference, I'm running BA separates up front, BA rear fill speakers off of 100W/channel Hifonic's amp, with a HSU 12" sub in the back, 400W from a Hifonic. Adding the crossover is the only difference from my Alpine setup.

And the funny thing is... I thought I had a pretty good soundstage with the alpine. I was mistaken. Again, subjectively, but I'm just feeling like it's crisper. Of course, I'm also using pretty big MP3 files (Var. bitrate, quality 1).

And since I JUST finished replacing the alpine with the EMPEG last week, I've still got a pretty good feeling for the difference in sq.