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Review and Measurements of Emotiva XMC-1 Gen 2 Pre/Pro

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Emotiva XMC-1 Generation 2 Home Theater Processor. It is on kind loan from a member and that is looking to upgrade it to the XMC-2 (they apparently have an attractive trade up program). The XMC-1 came out in 2015 I think. Not sure when the Gen 2 version came out. The XMC-1 costs US $2,499 so not cheap.

I like the display on the XMC-1 as far as the wealth of information it shows:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro review.jpg

Otherwise the look and feel is ordinary.

The menu system drove me crazy. Every button press takes 2 seconds or more to take hold. I don't know how such a slower processor would have passed any kind of review in a high-end processor.

The back panel shows excellent connectivity in the form of both XLR Output and (one) analog input:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Back Panel review.jpg


Routing my PC desktop through it resulted in UHD resolution but at just 30 Hz. Older HDMI chipset takes the blame.

To test, I connected my cables to far right connectors marked "R" and "L." Could not get any output from them or the RCA jacks above them. Tried everything. Reset to factory, etc. Nothing worked. I then just moved the cable until I got a signal. Only then did read the fine print that the connectors on the right are for subwoofer Right and Left! Sometimes it is hell being a reviewer!

DAC Audio Measurements
Here is our usual dashboard using HDMI In and XLR out:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro HDMI Audio Measurements.png


We have an accurate and proper 4 volt output at 0 dB volume. I think this is the first AVR or processor to get this right. Note that the test mode is Reference Stereo which is supposed to turn off all processing including bass management. SINAD performance is good for an AVR/Processor:
Best Home Theater AV processors Reviewed and Measured.png


But not compared to any decent desktop DAC:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax SINAD Audio Measurements.png


We have yet to have enough escape velocity in any home theater product to break into our green bucket let alone blue.

Here is the jitter performance over HDMI:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro HDMI Jitter Audio Measurements.png


It looks reasonably clean. Noise floor is high though and is hiding jitter components. Fortunately the levels are well below audibility.

From here on, I had to switch to using Coax input. For some reason, using ASIO interface with my graphics card would result in 7.1 output instead of stereo. And the XMC-1 would proceed to perform some processing on that. Fortunately, coax performance is essentially identical to HDMI so results should hold for both inputs:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax Audio Measurements.png


Notice how we are missing the spec by fair bit in channel 1. Channel 2 is better but still shy of the specification. The differential in channel performance tells me poor routing of signals or power to the DAC.

Dynamic range was not that great for a processor at this price:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax Dynamic Range Audio Measurements.png


We are barely clearing 16 bits.

Here is our intermodulation distortion+noise relative to level:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax IMD Audio Measurements.png


I am showing both output types (XLR and RCA) for those of you interested in RCA measurements. XLR is just a bit quieter but otherwise the same.

THD+N versus frequency is nothing to write home about:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax THD vs Frequency Audio Measurements.png


The red line is a $99 DAC board.

Frequency response is flat as we would expect:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax Frequency Response Audio Measurements.png


I know. I know. You are wondering why the decapitated tiger is adorning the XMC-1 in the review picture. This is why:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax Linearity Audio Measurements.png


I think this is the most broken linearity test we have seen! The output is muted for any signal below -90 dB! I thought something was broken when the test started from -120 dB with no output from the unit. Then all of a sudden it output the -90 dB signal. To show that clearly, see these graphs:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Coax 16 bit problem Audio Measurements.png


How the heck did you break this Emotiva? It is not like the output gets inaccurate. There is just no output below -90 dB. Once in a while it would do something as indicated by the partial sine wave but otherwise nothing.

Analog Input Performance
I took advantage of the nice XLR input to run some analog pre-amp tests. Here is the pass-through performance at the same level in/out:
Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Balanced In Audio Measurements.png


Hmmm. This is worse than the DAC performance. :(

Here is the frequency response both in Reference Stereo and Direct (which allows DSP):

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Balanced In Frequency Response Audio Meas...png


We see that Direct mode puts the ADC in the loop causing a sharp cut off in bandwidth to tune of 22 kHz. Here is the performance in both mode versus level:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Balanced In IMD Audio Measurements.png


Performance without ADC is good but with ADC, it does down the drain although it still beats the much more expensive NAD M17 Processor I recently reviewed.

Crosstalk was good, beating the NAD M17 there too:

Emotiva XMC-1 Home Theater Surround Processor PrePro Balanced In Crosstalk Measurements.png


Conclusions
I had high hopes for Emotiva XMC-1 seeing how it is one of few home theater products with specifications. Alas, I was not able to meet those specs even though the measurements it did produce, put it high in the home theater department.

The worst failing was the linearity test showing that there is some serious signal processing error inside this unit, muting the output below -90 dB. Was this put in there to improve specs? Or downright bug and lack of testing to find the same?

Even without that problem, we still can't match performance of a $99 desktop DAC even though we paid $2,500. Yes, we got more channels than 2 and have room EQ but still, I want my good performance damn it!

The XMC-2 has no specifications but I have read that they plan to release Audio Precision test results. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they deliver there.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Driving up and down another $200 miles to pick up more home theater gear on Thursday. Need gas and insurance money folks. So donate generously using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

digicidal

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Seems about like what I've found with Emotiva over the years... decently great performance, until something goes wrong... and then it goes very wrong. Can't really complain about their amps in a cost vs power basis though... but I'm glad I decided I couldn't wait back when the XMC-1 finally came out and went with the Marantz 8801A instead.

Sure this measures slightly better in some areas... and Dirac would have been preferred to Audyssey - but my 8801A doesn't have any weird gremlins and it worked from day one. Still remember all the drama getting Dirac to work (and some other things IIRC) on this prepro.

Glad they're working on making things better however, at least this shows that when they really try they can do better than most of their competition - they just need to make sure everything is better before releasing things IMO. We really need their kind of competition in the market, but it seems like they are often cutting corners or rushing something right at the finish line. (Yet strangely still taking forever to get out new products). :oops:
 
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amirm

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The complexity of these products from measurement point of view his huge. I took me all day to test this processor. So many modes. So many interactions. So many hidden paths for audio. But they need to test it. And test all corner cases.
 

digicidal

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Since the -90dB muting was DSP based, it should have been patched with new software? I remember a long list of problems when they first rolled this out... I wonder if this was more of a "we can't fix that other problem, but most people won't notice this one" kind of thing? Or was it just an oversight in a general sense?
 

Dj7675

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Do you know if it has the latest firmware? Is the linearity something firmware can address?
 
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amirm

amirm

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Since the -90dB muting was DSP based, it should have been patched with new software?
I am guessing it is software but could also be a hardware problem.
 

digicidal

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I am guessing it is software but could also be a hardware problem.

That's what I was wondering, if something was happening below that level that was causing problems (but was a hardware issue which couldn't easily be corrected) so they just put a hard-stop in the DSP to 'fix' the problem. Totally uninformed conjecture on my part however, so it's as likely to be completely wrong as accidentally correct. ;)

I do know there were many delivered (and I think even more promised) software updates for that model over the years.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Do you know if it has the latest firmware?
It says it is running version 4.0. I can't find if there is or is not an upgrade for it. There is all kinds of talk about different upgrade boards and such and no clear site with firmware upgrades. This is Gen 2 by the way, not the original series. If you can find an upgrade for it, I can test.
 
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amirm

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I do know there were many delivered (and I think even more promised) software updates for that model over the years.
This is the Gen 2 model so I am assuming it has some of those upgrades but not sure.
 
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I remember something like this with older Oppo players. They would mute with signals below some defined level.
This is probably a feature. :)
 

digicidal

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Looks like the last one was 5.8... in April of this year, and Keith said it addressed a "critical bug" but only applies to those with the updated HDMI 2.0 board and shouldn't be needed on the original 1.4 boards.

I will have to say that their "how-to" with it's long list of warnings is a little bit disturbing when being applied to a $2500 device. :eek: However, I guess that's to be expected... I'm just used to working with motherboards with backup BIOS options which can do everything including back-flashing without much concern at all. It's quite a bit different with modular components in a device with limited interfaces.
 

digicidal

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With so many possibilities in configuration and update version - it's hard to guess whether this is indicative of the device in general or is more of an outlier. Between Gen 1 & 2, HDMI board updgrades, and ? "invisible" revisions which might have been made mid-generation due to feedback - it's hard to see this as anything other than a review of this particular unit as opposed to the XMC-1 as a whole. Still, until right at the end it was firmly beating a NAD unit costing more than twice it's MSRP... so there's that!
 

Blumlein 88

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Could you test four tones each below 90 db, but in total together would be above 90 db, and see if it is just chopping low signals in a steady state, but having some ability below 90 db in the presence of a normal signal.

Or maybe this is a good idea, try the 32 tone test signal, but adjust the signal level so it is at about -84 db. See if the 32 tones show up at the lower levels.
 

gvl

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Then all of a sudden it output the -90 dB signal. To show that clearly, see these graphs:
View attachment 34949

How the heck did you break this Emotiva? It is not like the output gets inaccurate. There is just no output below -90 dB. Once in a while it would do something as indicated by the partial sine wave but otherwise nothing.

Who knows, perhaps the designer had a different wave in mind.

index.php


thewave.jpg
 
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miero

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@amirm can you check digital input with -90dB square wave at 100Hz?

I guess it will not truncate lower bits, it just triggers automute on very low signals.
 

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milosz

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Are there any "desktop" DACs that have 5.1 output? We keep reading how miserable the DACs are in these pre-pros and AV receivers- what's the alternative for 5.1 audio when we want to watch a Blu-Ray with lossless surround audio? You can usually get a separate optical digital audio output from a modern TV or Blu-Ray player, seems like using an outboard DAC should be an option for watching movies & streams. Sure, you wouldn't get DIRAC or speaker distance correction, but at least you'd get decent linearity etc.
 
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