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Emotiva RMC-1 AV Processor Review

timg

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SOWK, your comments about audio performance degrading over time the longer you left the RMC on were quite interesting. Have you found that true even with FW 1.8?
 

Thomas savage

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So Emotiva conceive, design, market and sell a product they openly admit to not having the in house expertise to deliver.

Mind you audio companies delivering products with dodgy software is not that unusual. Even the fabled Dutch&Dutch 8c has as long history of bad firmware and endless missed deadlines for promised features ( as I understand it). Devialet is another audio company with high technology ambition and some questionable integrated software.

If your planning on offering a device that needs firmware, get some software people onboard. Don't treat it as a aside.

Saying all that Emotiva seems to of messed up the bit they are ment to be good at too.

Oh my.
 

SOWK

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SOWK, your comments about audio performance degrading over time the longer you left the RMC on were quite interesting. Have you found that true even with FW 1.8?
I just installed it yesturday and have not tested it yet unfortunately.

But yes, in the past the longer you went without a full power cycle the crazier the glitches would get with the RMC-1.
 

doodlebro

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I assume you were using the 1.8 Beta.

Just last night they finally released the official 1.8.
www.dropbox.com/s/41cim9og2x5sqr4/EmotivaUpdate-1_8-2020_02_24.dat?dl=0

If you still have the unit please do the following if you are willing.


Do a factory reset under Setup/Advanced
Turn off the unit
Unplug the unit and all HDMI
wait 1 min
plug the unit back in, no HDMI yet
install the official 1.8
Do a factory reset under Setup/Advanced
Turn off the unit
Unplug the unit with all HDMI still unplugged
wait 1 min
plug the unit back in, no HDMI yet
Turn the unit on
Make the changes you need in the setup menu
turn off the unit
Unplug the unit with all HDMI still unplugged
plug the unit back in, and the HDMI.
Retest with working HDMI Audio.


I know you think it is electronic design, but you might not know how truly incompetent their software team is!

I would seriously be shocked if the results don't change drastically.


And yes... I know the above process seems unreasonable, and it is. But its the only way to get the unit to work accurately. :(

Even something as simple as changing modes from Auto to Stereo and Direct can screw up the unit to start doing weird things and possibly have it start to measure differently.

So if you are going to test a particular mode, say Stereo reference you might want to do a full power cycle or reboot after each mode change.

This is a $5000 product. If I was Amir, I wouldn't care to do a rain-dance so that measurements come out better.
 

peng

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A simple DAC with no volume control produces 4 volts (usually) with balanced outputs. Therefore to see if an AV processor has the same quality implementation, we also need to ask it to produce the same output voltage.

To address your point however, I added the test of output voltage versus SINAD:

index.php


You can see that in Reference Stereo, having more output helps this processor (green). With others tested so far, they do get worse with higher output.

From here on, you can use the graph above to figure out in your application what you are facing. I am showing about 0.5 volts to 4 volts output range which should cover most amplification needs/gains.

So are you going to including this graph for future tests of AV receivers and processors?

And, by the way the ranking chart (below) can be misleading if the voltage used for the measurements are not the same. For example, it shows the AV7705 and AV8805 have the same 92 dB SINAD but in fact the AV7705 was only at 92 dB if measured at 2.4 V, otherwise it dropped to about 75 dB at 4 V right?

1582644657560.png
 

SOWK

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This is a $5000 product. If I was Amir, I wouldn't care to do a rain-dance so that measurements come out better.

I don't expect him to care.
But just asked if he was willing.

Most of this is all on Emotiva. But not being able to get HDMI working might be a Amir issue. Who knows.

I have HDMI working from a HTPC just fine from 2.0 44.1khz 16bit up to 7.1 192khz 24bit on mine.
 

Dimifoot

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So are you going to including this graph for future tests of AV receivers and processors?
It would be nice if he did, I find it helpful in many ways
 

Koeitje

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markus

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It would be nice if he did, I find it helpful in many ways

I second that @amirm SINAD vs. output voltage would provide valuable information to users in which range their device should be operated and which amp matches.
 

suttondesign

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Isn't a THX-certified receiver or processor going to measure well since it got certification? The THX site lists only Integra and Onkyo as having certified units (for N. America).
 

Dj7675

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Ah yeesh. This is worse than the previous generation XMC-1. What happened? Is it a test issue? It's so confusing because they already know how to make a better measuring processor - the XMC-1. They also have an AP to test.

Just a note, you emailed them on friday and only gave them till Monday?! That's like two business days. Less if they hadn't even gotten to reading your email! I know that time is of the essence, but that's kinda quick.
I sent in the XMC1 for Amir to test because I was considering their upgrade program to the XMC-2. However the Emotiva showed no measurements like the XMC-1 had. I sent in a message and they said that they had several AP units in house to test and would post measurements soon. That was 3-4 months ago. I would not jump to the conclusion it is a test issue. I think this is an issue of "it is what it is" issue and the testing Amir has done is just a reflection of the unit.
 

ex audiophile

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anmpr1

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Yeah, that's a classic. Unfortunately the graphs did listen to the device :) Major cognitive dissonance. Next is ad hominem attacks.
I looked at the forum, and you see the usual replies. "I trust my ears" and so forth. That is really a cop out. It would be better for folks to argue that with the measured specs you likely can't hear any difference. However, the question, then, is just what are you paying for? What are the specific design-engineering specifications Emotiva decided upon, and why were they chosen? An answer would tell you about the engineering sophistication of the company, and might also tell you whether their final product has good QC (i.e., whether it meets its specs).

About that argument that if you can't hear it, it doesn't matter? I more or less understand that argument at the low end. The really low end. But if I'm spending top dollar (and make no mistake about it, this is a top tier product from a dollars and cents standpoint) I'd like my money to pay for top tier engineering.
 
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