Emotiva equipmet, how good is it?

You can not go wrong picking up a pair of XPA 100’s. I have a pair in my main system that are being used most of the time. While I can get a better sound with my Pass XA30.5 the XPA’s do quite well holding their own at this price point. Im preamping with a upgraded Sonic Frontiers Line 1 or when using my Modwright LS 100 preamp its a whole different sound that I like much better but I prefer the sophistication of the Line 1’s volume control not to mention that part of the upgrade is better chips for that purpose. The line 1 is better with a tube based amp as it can not "color" the sound as well as the Modwright. In a good way of course. As many will say pairing a tube based amp or pre with solid state amp or pre is often the way to go.   (either the amp or the pre tube and the complimenting unit be the opposite so to speak)I also really like that the Line 1 has the read out screen and much more of an incremental volume control. The modwright is remote controlled although we are talking motorized volume control . At any rate. . The XPA’s are a bargain. Well made. Not a hiccup since Ive bought. Bought them originally to give a bit more power for my ML’s. Finding a pair used would be an even better deal.

I think it's nice Mid Fi stuff

As a current owner of a XPA-2 Gen.2 and XSP-2 Gen.2 past three years, I can honestly say, NOBODY can touch them in terms of cost/performance ratios. These are NOT Mid-Fi junk, but well designed, very well built units that compete with older, better known and MUCH more expensive brands. Don't let the "Made in China" scare you, as MANY "high-end" brands outsource their products there also (Krell and Parasound are great examples). China has proven to be a world class manufacturer of electronics. 

The XPA-2 Gen.2 (Discontinued) offers huge power reserves, runs cool even when driven hard and never sounds harsh or strident. In fact, it doesn't sound like anything. It neither adds nor subtracts from the sound as far as I can discern. It performed extremely well with my Magnepan MG-1.7s and my current Source Loudspeaker Technologies 7211 Reed Towers.

The XSP-2 Gen. 2 (Current Product) offers plenty of connectivity, precision stepped ladder volume control, hi-pass/low-pass bass management and is fully balanced. Again, this unit sounds as neutral as anything I have ever heard and is dead quiet.

If I had negative to say about them, is that I hate the blinding blue power button LEDs and the cosmetics are exactly the most beautiful. In fact, they seem a bit too industrial for me. I do prefer the likes of Parasound's HALO series with the soft curves and all.

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.