Obviously, the crowd around here is going to be more likely to prefer Outlaw over Emotiva because we're in a forum hosted by Outlaw. Having said that, I will say that I really like my 990 I can heartily recommend it.

I've been involved off and on in a lengthy and still ongoing debate about the Ultra package for over a year now - the LMC-1 has a number of bugs that I'd classify as significant (see this post at AV123 for a list of bugs and questions that remain unresolved) and it's not clear whether or not future firmware updates (which I hope will be pursued by Emotiva) could all be installed without being shipped back to Emotiva. The feature set is very minimal, the Pro Logic II/IIx implementation includes some odd bass management compromises and there's not really any surround mode memory (not in a practical manner, at least). There was also the matter of some very confusing discussion of a DTS-ES bug during which Emotiva misunderstood the DTS standards and for at least a couple weeks told customers that they were in the right while all the other receivers and processors were doing DTS-ES/NEO:6 wrong. (Fortunately they realized their mistake eventually, but it was a bit disturbing for it to be an issue in the first place.) I'd be very leery of recommending the LMC-1.

The Reference series is a bit more stable looking than the Ultra. The MMC-1 can trace its roots back to the Sunfire Theater Grand IV - it's a mighty fine platform, but the 990 still has a few extra features and offers sound quality that is going to be on par with the MMC. Also, 990/7125 is actually less expensive than the Reference package ($1898 for the 990/7125 vs $2199 for the MMC-1/IPS-1). Outlaw's amps cost a little more than Emotiva amps in some cases because they are built domestically while the Emotiva amps are built in China.