Emotiva equipmet, how good is it?

Prefer a new integrated?-
Including a DAC-
Give the Nuprime IDA-8 a listen (if you don’t have a local dealer, check out the Sonic Unity website with a 30 day trial), or the NAD C368, which is the start of their modular designs and has an impressive power upgrade path (also lots of dealers!).

One school of thought- don’t bother with an integral DAC, as this aspect is in a constant stage of flux, just go with the best basic integrated you can.
It has been many years, but I have owned a couple of great sounding integrateds from British Fidelity (which evolved into Musical Fidelity). I saw another contributor’s recommendation of a MF M2si from Upscale Audio. Haven’t heard it, but it looks like a bargain. Kevin Deal at Upscale is also the US distributor for PrimaLuna and a tube guru. 

As an XPA Emotiva amp owner(until I sold it off) I have to differ with some of the comments.

 I had the amp paired with a pair of higher end speakers, and it’s weaknesses showed up.  Not very accurate bass, overly bright at higher volumes and this with laid back speakers.  

I was using the XDA-1( what they billed as a dac/digital pre amp) and really both were mediocre.  I will say that although I think their entry level stuff is still mediocre, I can’t speak to their top of the line stuff these days.

but I’d give most of it a pass, look at Schiit Audio for a pre and amp if you want lots of bang for your buck these days.  They are serious audio heads and design their own stuff, and have it built locally from the ground up.

Emotiva is low-mid-fi at best.
not top quality, some issues, and customer service has been getting worse past couple. Years with so many breakdowns, their service dept can not handle all the bad stuff.

i would skip on then, and look elsewhere. JMHO.

But........I have a pair of monoblocks, if your interested, they come with a special present, 
contact if interested.

If Emotiva stuck the exact same amp as their differential balanced amp in a fancy Dagostino chassis and marked it up 10x, people would be loving it.

Actually, scratch that...the ripoff Dagostino broke on the test bench 2 times in a Stereophile review.  I think the Emotiva would fair even better.

Very few amps are worth more than $5k and when you pay more than $5k, it's mainly for the chassis and heatsinks not actual parts.  Plus, half the markup is due to the distributor and another half for the dealer. 

They also add a premium to trigger people's perception that high cost equals high performance...something that Payless Shoes just exposed in a recent test where they simply marked up their normal shoes 10x and fooled everyone.

Unless you are getting something revolutionary like the Berning amps that nobody else can make (albeit still overpriced), I would recommend Emotiva for virtually any budget if you are buying brand new.

And yes..I have heard/owned many of the other major amps ARC, McIntosh, Parasound, etc and tons of others over the years.

My ultimate favorite for best performance and price is a modified McCormack, but that's off subject.