Emotiva equipmet, how good is it?

The short answer is, excellent. I have the Emotiva 1L monoblocks and the XSP-1 preamp going on three years now. I made a few simple modifications: upgraded the fuses in all three boxes and upgraded the binding posts in the blocks to Furutechs. My front end is PS Audio Direct Stream dac Jr and the PWT (cd transport). Speakers are Kef LS/50 + 2 SVS model 4000 subs. I put a lot of effort into acoustic treatment of the listening room. I once believed that I would need to upgrade to "more expensive" components because $ = sonic improvement. Perhaps it does, but my system sounds so good (especially after the recent PS Audio Snowmass software upgrade for the dac Jr) that I no longer feel the need to spend more money. Not only is Emotiva good value for money, but also on an absolute level, once you tweak it and once you have a good room (room acoustics are 50% of the battle) you'll feel like you no longer need to search and can instead sit back and just relax with your music collection.

My experience with Emotiva was limited to their powered speakers. The good- exceptional sound for the dollar spent and space required. The bad- reliability. One speaker woofer failed in the first 60 days. The Emotiva response was friendly and fast- they sent a new pair. The exchanged pair lasted about 3 months (actually about a calendar year, but these are in a snow bird bedroom system , and are packed away for 9 months a year) before one started smoking. This time it was sent to TN for repair. The turn around was quite good. I used them for another month or so, then traded them in for an NAD D3020 & speakers- very happy.
A friend, who is an accomplished electrical engineer and audiophile/dealer of 40 years, bench tested an Emotiva surround processor/pre and found it to be noisy and of mediocre build (this was about 5 yrs ago).
It seems to me that Emotiva’s forte is power amps and it’s really hard to find anyone who gives you so much power for so little outlay. The comments above may have little relevance in terms of those products or what you are considering.
I would second the recommendation for a Hegel H-80. This amp is open, smooth and capable of driving 4 ohm speakers very well. I also agree that some Chinese built stuff is very well made. My second recommendation for an integrated is such a product - the PrimaLuna Prologue Two. I have had both of these amps for several years. They are built like tanks, easy on the ears and below $1000 (probably substantially).

My only experience was with purchasing their XMC-1 pre/pro and thank goodness for their return policy.  It was simply unlistenable to me.  I did not want to be in the same room with the sound of it... And that's trying both its D/A conversion, and the analog pass through.... even the analog path was not transparent.   I've picked up a used Anthem D2V and LOVE it.... it sounds great, great user interface... and the analog path is very good.  I listen to the analog outs of my OPPO 105.  Yes i know there is better 2-channel out there, but this is fine for this system.

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.