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Emotiva MC-1 Review (Home Theater Processor)

Rate this AV Processor

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 92 36.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 126 50.4%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 25 10.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 7 2.8%

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    250
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Umm. That "low frequency" noise looks a lot like an EQ being applied. See for example HUD100 measured here before.
According the the manual, bass management is active even when in "Pure Mode" for digital signals

Pure - applies the least possible processing to both analog and digital sources. Bass Management and distance correction are still applied with digital sources, but not with analog sources, and EQ is bypassed.

Direct - delivers the source signal with minimum modification, while still applying system equalization, and room correction, to both analog and digital sources.
 

perdido34

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But in pure/direct they are not supposed to.
Denon and Marantz, at least, have no Audyssey circuitry or bass management in use when in pure/direct mode; thus there is no down-res of digital inputs in that situation.
 

DonR

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According the the manual, bass management is active even when in "Pure Mode" for digital signals

Pure - applies the least possible processing to both analog and digital sources. Bass Management and distance correction are still applied with digital sources, but not with analog sources, and EQ is bypassed.

Direct - delivers the source signal with minimum modification, while still applying system equalization, and room correction, to both analog and digital sources.
So "Pure" and "Direct" are neither pure nor direct. Seems they mislabeled them.
 

muslhead

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If this handles bass management like the xmc2 does, we can conclude it is worse than having no bass management.
The software that controls this for the xmc platform is still a f'up mess ... even after 6 months of promises to fix it.
Proceed at your own risk
 

TimW

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This unit has DSP built in so of course operates at a fixed sampling frequency. That is how the majority of DSP devices work including all miniDSP units. Without DSP and the required resampling we would not get automated room correction which can offer a huge boost to performance in an audio playback system. The fact that this unit can't playback high frequency noise above the audible spectrum from silly "HiRes" files is a plus rather than a minus IMO.
 

P_M

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Multitone was very disappointing:

View attachment 185132

There is a lot of noise/intermodulation there. But also, roll off at 20 kHz. This can't as the sample rate for this test is 192 kHz. This means the internal DAC should

@amirm
do you normally test other more common sampling rates (44.1khz, 48khz) for multitone or only the highest sampling rate ?
and do you test at max level (0db) only ? I am just curious what would happen if you'd test at slightly lower than 0db say -1db and lower sampling rate for devices that do terrible at multitone.
 

Spkrdctr

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This unit has DSP built in so of course operates at a fixed sampling frequency. That is how the majority of DSP devices work including all miniDSP units. Without DSP and the required resampling we would not get automated room correction which can offer a huge boost to performance in an audio playback system. The fact that this unit can't playback high frequency noise above the audible spectrum from silly "HiRes" files is a plus rather than a minus IMO.
You just digitally shamed all the DSD folks. Me? I'm sticking with my high quality, nothing has ever come out better Memorex cassette tapes. Remember, "Is it real or Memorex"? Doesn't get any better than that. :)
 

beefkabob

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I can deal with everything here but the multi-tone, the frequency roll off, the forced resampling, and the price. 4 strikes and you're out.
 

voodooless

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Seems like there is something weird going on here depending on sample rate. Assuming the 90 kHz spectrum is using 192 kHz sample rate the lack of low frequency rise is consistent with the frequency response measurement also at 192 kHz. Definitely warrants some more investigation.

Indeed! Why is there low frequency distortion in one FFT (dashboard) and not in the other (90 kHz bw measurement). Also the THD+N vs frequency shows a higher SINAD than the dashboard. Something is wrong here. @amirm, any idea why there is the difference?
 

raindance

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Denon and Marantz, at least, have no Audyssey circuitry or bass management in use when in pure/direct mode; thus there is no down-res of digital inputs in that situation.
They have Audyssey disabled but bass management REMAINS active. At least every Marantz and Denon I've ever owned does.
 
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The Jniac

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Kind of disappointing that they want four figures for a device which might as well be called the CBA-13 (Cannot Be Arsed; 13 channels). Given that the company has a bit of a reputation for subpar software, these measurements do not inspire confidence that they are turning things around and putting serious effort in. I absolutely refuse to believe that this is the best that they could do in the price range.
 

TJN

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The audio that accompanies most video material (cable / streaming /DVD / Bluray / 4k) is compressed / lossy. Yes, there are so-called hi-res lossless formats on some discs, but how much transparency and resolution do you really need to listen to explosions, planes zooming around, actors voices and so on? This thing is good enough for Dolby AC-3, surely, and that is the format used for the vast bulk of video programming / movies.

Now for MUSIC- almost all of which is 2-channel -this thing falls short. So, if you buy this pre-pro, you can also buy yourself a nice Topping 2-channel DAC for $130 and arrange a way to switch between the two. Transparent DAC for music, "Just OK" pre-pro for TV.

If you INSIST on being able to listen to 11-channel audio on a more transparent system, you will need to spend a small fortune. And I wonder - with all those effects zooming around- can you really hear the difference between a system linear to 13 bits like this one and another one that reaches 20 bits of linearity when playing a movie or watching TV?
In the early days of video discs (laserdiscs and DVDs) the audio was highly compressed, lossy AC-3. But since the introduction of Blu-rays (both 2K and 4K) over 12 years ago, the English audio tracks, on discs at least, use lossless compression, mostly at 16 bit/48kHz. That's higher than CD quality, though not by much. Apart from this post, I haven't heard anyone mention AC-3 since then. The relevant formats today are either DTS HD Master Audio or Dolby True HD. And they're not used only on some discs, but on nearly all of them.
<P>
True, lossy compression is dominant on streaming. The latter can be satisfying, particularly for users whose interest in movies is casual, but Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray discs continue to offer the best audio (and video) experience.
<P>
To disparage movie sound because it's only good for crashes, booms and dialogue is to ignore the considerable importance of music in most films. And you don't need a small fortune to build an excellent, movie-centric home theater. You can do so, of course, but for a reasonable investment, perhaps spread out over time, you can also achieve a system that will be highly rewarding on both movies and music. I suspect most posters here would agree with that.
 

moonlight rainbow dream

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This looks like a pretty good value to me. I was expecting worse performance, but it seems to eke by in terms of audible transparency in a real world listening scenario.

13 channels of processing (unheard of at this pricepoint), full featured bass management, healthy abikity to drive external amplification, and parametric EQs on all channels make this pretty appealing for a HT enthusiast who likes to get their hands dirty and do everything manually.

ASR regulars are obviously not the target demographic for something like this. So many channels enables the use of front wides, and enough atmos and side surrounds for multiple rows of seating.
 
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KMO

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Denon and Marantz, at least, have no Audyssey circuitry or bass management in use when in pure/direct mode; thus there is no down-res of digital inputs in that situation.
This certainly used to be the case, but I've had loads of people insisting to me that bass management works in so-called "direct" mode these days in current Denons. Which implies digitisation, but I don't know at what sample rate. If anyone can enlighten me on what enables/disables this...

There seems to be an increasing trend for manufacturers to make "direct" modes retain functionality and go through the DSP because presumably they get more complaints like "my subwoofer doesn't work in direct mode" than "it downsamples to 48kHz".
 
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amirm

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@amirm
do you normally test other more common sampling rates (44.1khz, 48khz) for multitone or only the highest sampling rate ?
Multitone test sample came from Audio Precision and was at 192 kHz so I used it that way. I also have a 44.1 kHz one but it only has 7 tones. I have used that from time to time when the device doesn't support 192 kHz. By using the standard AP files we give a chance to others to replicate the measurements as opposed to something I cook up.
 
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amirm

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This looks like a pretty good value to me. I was expecting worse performance, but it seems to eke by in terms of audible transparency in a real world listening scenario.

13 channels of processing (unheard of at this pricepoint), full featured bass management, healthy abikity to drive external amplification, and parametric EQs on all channels make this pretty appealing for a HT enthusiast who likes to get their hands dirty and do everything manually.

ASR regulars are obviously not the target demographic for something like this. So many channels enables the use of front wides, and enough atmos and side surrounds for multiple rows of seating.
ASR members should feel fine purchasing such a unit. They just shouldn't if they thought this device produces extreme objective fidelity as the advertising indicates. So to the extent they have an AVR, then changing to this unit will not boost audio performance or may degrade it.

If above is not a factor then by all means, buy it based on other factors such as functionality, vendor support, price, etc. My job isn't to judge those so you can make your own decisions.
 

raindance

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This certainly used to be the case, but I've had loads of people insisting to me that bass management works in so-called "direct" mode these days in current Denons. Which implies digitisation, but I don't know at what sample rate. If anyone can enlighten me on what enables/disables this...

There seems to be an increasing trend for manufacturers to make "direct" modes retain functionality and go through the DSP because presumably they get more complaints like "my subwoofer doesn't work in direct mode" than "it downsamples to 48kHz".
I suspect the bass management uses analog filters.
 
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