Emotiva RMC-1 AV Processor Review

[SOWK]

Again, we still don't know what problem they have fixed. I identified a number of them. Not a single issue.

Follow the instructions in post #79 or #522... and find out.


LOL

WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME! haha.

Am I a ghost?

 

[Costas EAR]

All buyers of this emotiva avr, were fully aware that this was in a beta, deep beta version, and still they wanted to buy the product.

So, no worries for the buyers.

I suspect that Amir might be the first one to try the "reference stereo" mode, and he is not the last one, only because he found a problem, and because of that, there were other guys trying this mode to solve it...

I admit that I never ever tried my avr at such a mode, and any type of "stereo" anyway. I am using all the time the auro 3d upmixing even for 5.1 sacd material (and Spotify - Tidal), and of course always with bass management, 3D calibration, target curves, etc etc etc.

It is in fact quite impossible for me to try something like "reference stereo", because without my subs, i don't want to listen anything at all.

I wonder if they bothered to solve the other problems amir found, because he didn't identify just this one problem.

 

[Kishore]

.......

Put the unit into Reference Stereo, Turn it off, Switch off the power via the back toggle for 1 min.
Turn back on click info to make sure it is still in Reference Stereo, and test.
DO NOT CHANGE MODES: If you swap between modes Direct, Auto, Dolby, Reference Stereo you will need to repeat the steps I just posted.
If you change modes it will get stuck in some weird up mixing mode it is not supposed to be in.
So if you go from Stereo, Direct, Reference Stereo you will for now need to power cycle the unit between each mode swap.

Seems you need 3 stooges available to support manual toggle off/on- C'mon this is cray Hope 1.9 addresses this

 

[SOWK]

Seems you need 3 stooges available to support manual toggle off/on- C'mon this is cray Hope 1.9 addresses this

They said it will.

 

[SOWK]

@amirm

If you are ignoring my posts because you think they are satire.. they are not unfortunately.

I understand its sounds so stupid and silly, but its actually a real issue with the RMC-1.

 

[SmackDaddies]

@amirm

If you are ignoring my posts because you think they are satire.. they are not unfortunately.

I understand its sounds so stupid and silly, but its actually a real issue with the RMC-1.

Any $5,000 amp that requires a cheat code to play it (every time) is a joke

 

[SOWK]

Any $5,000 amp that requires a cheat code to play it (every time) is a joke

I again am not in disagreement.

But if he wants to see what they "fixed" my steps will produce the so called results.

 

[doodlebro]

No surprise that they locked the dedicated discussion thread over at EmotivaLounge.

All those fanboys who don't realize they're part of nothing more than a marketing machine... it's sad.

 

[SOWK]

No surprise that they locked the dedicated discussion thread over at EmotivaLounge

Seriously? WOW.

 

[thxultra]

Again, we still don't know what problem they have fixed. I identified a number of them. Not a single issue.

True but wouldn't getting the 1.9 firmware and running your test show if they fixed any problems?

 

[doodlebro]

Seriously? WOW.

It's funny because in the justification for locking the thread they say:

Any other posts at this point are just opinions

But the rules that they kept pushing when they hated the bad press also clearly state:

We view EmotivaLounge as a social and educational portal ... Opinions are welcome, not bad behavior.

Which is it? I can't believe ONE dude tinkering in his mancave caused this much of a stir. Audio manufacturers hate him...

 

[SOWK]

True but wouldn't getting the 1.9 firmware and running your test show if they fixed any problems?

Or post #79 and #522...

All they fixed is the dumb dolby upmixer from getting into modes its not suppose to. Such as Stereo, Direct, Reference Stereo.

 

[thxultra]

Or post #79 and #522...

All they fixed is the dumb dolby upmixer from getting into modes its not suppose to. Such as Stereo, Direct, Reference Stereo.

It is funny because I posted about that many times that I would switch modes and it was supposed to default to direct said direct on the screen and played through the upmixer. shouldn't have sound out of the center channel when in direct

 

[SOWK]

It is funny because I posted about that many times that I would switch modes and it was supposed to default to direct said direct on the screen and played through the upmixer.

Yup.

 

[Grandzoltar]

Was the spurious tones at low frequencies? I still don't know what is going on and what to confirm

I was wondering the same thing they haven’t even acknowledged that issue yet. Have you ever seen measurements like that?

 

[Dj7675]

Ye

No surprise that they locked the dedicated discussion thread over at EmotivaLounge.

All those fanboys who don't realize they're part of nothing more than a marketing machine... it's sad.

Yep, locked. First remove the discussion of a a bench test showing poor performance to its own thread, then locking it. I almost purchased an XCM-2. Their response to the issue Amir found was very poor. Hopefully they will learn something from this. But either way I won't be buying anything Emotiva. Disregard for specs/measurments on products costing $5k, products that have been out for 1-2 years still don't have room correction, slow UI and buggy. Feels like a dodged a bullet.

 

[OverTheAir]

From Lonnie at Emotiva a few mins ago:

"We weren't able to recreate it until Tuesday evening and Wednesday we dug into the why. We knew it wasn't part of the hardware design because it doesn't show up in multi-channel operation, only two channel. So after doing some digging we found that the Dolby up mixer was causing the problem. Now we don't know why the up mixer is doing it because this is black box territory. We have no visibility to what Dolby is doing. All we can do is set bit registers to change modes. In this case it is set to bypass but obviously its still doing something. So we put in a bit of code to switch it off all together and the problem went away. That brings us to today. "

My rain dance instructions from post 79 would have solved it!

All hail post #79!!!!

That made me laugh .. thankyou Now how does it go again ... right foot in, right foot out, right foot in and shake it all about!

 

[SimpleTheater]

I just read the RMC-1 is "hopefully" getting DIRAC in late March. I highly doubt it, but that's what Emotiva is saying.

The RMC-1 has a terrible user interface and has tested very poorly. It costs $5,000.

The Monoprice HTP-1 tested okay, has DIRAC now, and costs $4,000. Both are 16 channel preamps.

Am I missing something? Can the Emotiva do anything the Monoprice can't?

Not that I'm buying either one, not until the JBL SDP-55 gets tested.

The way Emotiva has responded I will not be buying anything from them, even dedicated amps. Really poor customer relations and they pulled the "poor me we don't have unlimited resources" line out. Really? I'm planning on putting about $20k into new amps, subs and processors and you think I want to read that.

I have no idea of their financial health, but this is a red flag for me. If they were just intelligent in their response, I'd still be looking at their products. Something along the lines of "Just got a brutal review and we're looking into the issue. Could have been a bad unit. We're going to do a thorough diagnostics of some RMC-1's we have here and get back to everyone." Then they could have found the issue(s), and if fixable via firmware, told everyone "Great news, we found out the flaw was in the software and we fixed it. Oh, Amirm doesn't have the unit anymore to test it? That's too bad, because its the best sounding product out."

 

[thxultra]

I just read the RMC-1 is "hopefully" getting DIRAC in late March. I highly doubt it, but that's what Emotiva is saying.

The RMC-1 has a terrible user interface and has tested very poorly. It costs $5,000.

The Monoprice HTP-1 tested okay, has DIRAC now, and costs $4,000. Both are 16 channel preamps.

Am I missing something? Can the Emotiva do anything the Monoprice can't?

Not that I'm buying either one, not until the JBL SDP-55 gets tested.

The way Emotiva has responded I will not be buying anything from them, even dedicated amps. Really poor customer relations and they pulled the "poor me we don't have unlimited resources" line out. Really? I'm planning on putting about $20k into new amps, subs and processors and you think I want to read that.

I have no idea of their financial health, but this is a red flag for me. If they were just intelligent in their response, I'd still be looking at their products. Something along the lines of "Just got a brutal review and we're looking into the issue. Could have been a bad unit. We're going to do a thorough diagnostics of some RMC-1's we have here and get back to everyone." Then they could have found the issue(s), and if fixable via firmware, told everyone "Great news, we found out the flaw was in the software and we fixed it. Oh, Amirm doesn't have the unit anymore to test it? That's too bad, because its the best sounding product out."

My guess is they will have a demo with DIRAC at Axpona and it will be released in May or June...
My problem with DIRAC is it samples down to 48khz so not sure I will use it or not. I will see if it makes a difference when it is released.
I would like to see how a XMC-2 test compared to the RMC-1. I expect on the AVS test it will be the same since the front 3 channels are the same configuration. If you don't plan on going over 16channels I don't see why you would buy a RMC-1 over a XMC-2 either...

I thought Amirm still had the RMC-1. I would like to see him test with firmware 1.9 and see if anything has been fixed.

 

[kernelpanic]

I just read the RMC-1 is "hopefully" getting DIRAC in late March. I highly doubt it, but that's what Emotiva is saying.

The RMC-1 has a terrible user interface and has tested very poorly. It costs $5,000.

The Monoprice HTP-1 tested okay, has DIRAC now, and costs $4,000. Both are 16 channel preamps.

Am I missing something? Can the Emotiva do anything the Monoprice can't?

Not that I'm buying either one, not until the JBL SDP-55 gets tested.

The way Emotiva has responded I will not be buying anything from them, even dedicated amps. Really poor customer relations and they pulled the "poor me we don't have unlimited resources" line out. Really? I'm planning on putting about $20k into new amps, subs and processors and you think I want to read that.

I have no idea of their financial health, but this is a red flag for me. If they were just intelligent in their response, I'd still be looking at their products. Something along the lines of "Just got a brutal review and we're looking into the issue. Could have been a bad unit. We're going to do a thorough diagnostics of some RMC-1's we have here and get back to everyone." Then they could have found the issue(s), and if fixable via firmware, told everyone "Great news, we found out the flaw was in the software and we fixed it. Oh, Amirm doesn't have the unit anymore to test it? That's too bad, because its the best sounding product out."

The RMC-1 5k version is really about the modular bays to add expansions cards in the future. Really the RMC-1L is the competitor to the HTP-1 which is the same price at 4k so it's a toss up. XMC-2 has a nice price edge 1k cheaper, but yeah I am cautious as to the test results of that one.

I've been considering a pre/pro for a new HT build for a while. For such a tight processor market, it doesn't seem that anyone shines as a clear winner. Each box has tradeoffs including the Marantz 7705 and 8805 as well as the Anthem AVM60. I've been torn over these all for months!