Just don’t get Emco crossed with Enco.
Anything made in Japan or Korea is excellent.
Almost everything made in Taiwan is at minimum very good, and probably REALLY good. For example, many early Jet lathes were made in Taiwan, and can be sleepers. The Taiwanese are not screwing around. Buy Taiwanese with confidence, especially if it’s from the 90’s and 2000’s.
Made in China is extremely variable, to say the least. There are good machines MiC. There’s junk MiC. Everything in between. And it’s a moving target; you can’t just count on a brand name if it’s MiC. Factories change. Buyer beware.
Made in America can be tricky. There’s a lot of good hobbyist stuff; Logan, SB, Sheldon, etc. There’s a couple incredible tool room lathes- HLVH and Monarch’s like pal’s. Then there’s “big iron” that typically has really deep headstocks and *usually* runs slower than you’d like for carbide. Towards the very end of the American Iron era there were a few mid-size machines- American Pacemaker made one- that run fast. Really deep headstocks, but there’s workarounds for that. My Webb has a deep headstock…
