I can't speak to the Emotiva, but the 990 is just awesome for music. You can use the DACs in the 990 fed by an optical or coax digital connection from a moderately priced CD player (OPPO for example) and blow away any mp3 music on an iPod played through the 990. Too much information is lost when the mp3 is created (as Gonk pointed out)to maintain high quality sound. I did this comparison just recently and could not believe how poorly my iPod sounded in comparison to a CD. mp3s are fine for the iPod alone but I don't recommend them for playback through a home system.

Also, I believe the 990 DACs and CD player as a transport would compare favorably to CD players costing around $1000. Just my $.02.