Hi,
I am new here and I hope I am allowed to write a RMC 1 review from the perspective of listening the sound.
I already have 50 years of audio listening experience (music and movies) and I was doing myself all the needed power amplifiers, but I never had a real good quality device until I could afford to buy the amazing Oppo 203 UHD player and the Emotiva RMC 1 receiver, connected to the Oled Sony A1F8 65 inch TV. These three pieces of my audio-video chain offered me that emotional experience which cannot be properly described in words. In order to set them all three together, in the best optimal functionality possible, I needed a lot of experience, knowledge, also reading hundred of pages of blogs, manuals, other reviews, including many pages from this amazing forum.
When buying some device, totally different from what I previously had, I always felt that pressure and feeling of being "so difficult to operate", but the more you operate, the easier it become and after few months I'll be starting to see how quickly I am using the remote and the controls and how quickly I can navigate through various menus. But frustration was part of getting used with the new staff and now I know it will happen every-time I'll buy something totally new.
Coming back to Emotiva RMC 1, before buying it, I read very carefully most if not all the 60 pages published here, in order to decide if this is the one matching my dreams as an audio and video amateur, knowing that my decision will cost me a great financial effort. So, finally I did it in november last year and then I started to adapt and build my own power amplifier, 16 channels, divided into 8 stereo modules, each placed in metal boxes, each having its own torroid transformer, EMI filter, double shielded cables and so on. After about 400 hours of work I had the system finalized and it weight 64 kg.
The came the moment of truth, which means the answer to the question: Will Emotiva RMC 1 offer me the best sound with zero ground noise that I always dreamed to have ? YES !!! ... When powering on, first I upgraded the firmware from its original 1.9 to 2.3 (for 2022 there is already a 2.5 version but I never tried it yet), knowing already that all the previous problems, bugs, audio spikes and others, mentioned in this thread of the forum, have been solved.
The sound is excellent on all 16 channels, zero ground loop noise - due to the XLR connection, and amazing little electronic components noise, which is almost impossible to hear even on a pause file playing. It never happened before Emotiva RMC 1 to actually get such a good sound with zero ground loop because mainly I was never using XLR technology - designed for noise cancellation. I compared that with the 7.1 audio analogue Oppo 203 output and I noticed the difference.
Then I played three files (until now): The amazing Aquaman 4k Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos Master Disc from my Blue Ray disc collection, played from OPPO Blue Ray unit, then I compared the same Aquaman played from a ripped mkv version, and then I played an original demonstration Dolby Atmos file offered freely on their website.
The results were truly amazing only from the original master disc and the original master demo file. The mkv rip was missing the last 4 height channels, and was not good.
The total immersion in sound is beyond any words and because the Atmos demonstration file have been created specially for showing the 16 channels effect, the one which knocked me out was a forest ambience ... insects flying from one speaker to another, birds noises circulating and hearing wings flapping, the wind blowing ... and this technology is just on the beginning, because Emotive promised long time ago a future expansion modules development which may add supplemental 12 channels (4 subwoofers and 8 new channels) and this is the only available receiver capable of expansion, including adapting to the 8k HDMI signals by simply upgrading the small board.
More than that, Emotiva RMC 1 has the best lowest price versus quality, and if you are just ok with 16 channels without expansion modules, then RMC 1-L is 500$ or even more, less expensive. I am so happy, that I can't find the proper words to say: this is really worth every penny.