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Emotiva RMC-1 AV Processor Review

Adaboy

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Guys move this non-rmc1 room correction crap to a new thread. It's not that hard. Dang you guys are being more annoying than Emotiva locking threads. The moderator asked you to do this twice already. For your engineering intelligence you're reading and comprehension skills or lack there of sucks. I want to hear discussions about the RMC-1.
 

Adaboy

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What is the status on Emotiva's updated FW to "Fix" the one bad measurement that they finally were able to duplicate? Has it been sent to the wild, and if so has anyone noticed an improvement?
 

BDWoody

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Guys move this non-rmc1 room correction crap to a new thread. It's not that hard. Dang you guys are being more annoying than Emotiva locking threads. The moderator asked you to do this twice already. For your engineering intelligence you're reading and comprehension skills or lack there of sucks. I want to hear discussions about the RMC-1.

Nice first post...
 

BDWoody

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He's not wrong though is he.

No...but it just struck me as a touch on the aggressive side for someone who hasn't even yet said hello.

Edit: As the actual moderator, I don't think I've ever seen you use that...'tone'...? Thank Baby Jesus...
 

Adaboy

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No...but it just struck me as a touch on the aggressive side for someone who hasn't even yet said hello.

Edit: As the actual moderator, I don't think I've ever seen you use that...'tone'...? Thank Baby Jesus...

Hello

I’ve read every post and just had to let it out. Was a touch early.
No hard feelings
 

BDWoody

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Hello

I’ve read every post and just had to let it out. Was a touch early.
No hard feelings

And my 'welcome' to you wasn't very welcoming either, was it...

Let me try again...

Welcome to the forum! If it seems a bit haphazard around here, it's because it is...but we are generally a pretty collegial group..

I hope you stick around and become part of it.

Cheers
 
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amirm

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OK, here is the re-test of the Emotiva RMC-1 with the version 1.9 firmware.

Let's start with our dashboard:

Emotiva RMC-A Home Theater Dolby Atmos Processor Version 1x9 Audio Measurements.png


Wow, that is a huge improvement. Those spurious tones that went on forever were adding to the noise floor, dragging SINAD way down (see inset for the original version 1.8 test). The new SINAD places the RMC-1 in a new performance bracket:

Best Audio DAC Reviewed 2020.png


It also raises the status of RMC-1 to the top of the class among AVRs and Processors tested:

Best Home Theater Processor Review 2020.png


Note that I cleaned up the above graph, taking out the 2.7 volt output of the HTP-1 as that was not a fair comparison against likes of RMC-1 which produce 4 volt output.

You can see the improvement easier when we compare THD+N against output voltage:

Emotiva RMC-A Home Theater Dolby Atmos Processor Version 1x9 THD vs Output Level Audio Measure...png


IMD also improved:

Emotiva RMC-A Home Theater Dolby Atmos Processor Version 1x9 IMD Audio Measurements.png


There is still an issue with Reference stereo having higher noise level. I wonder if there is some conversion/dither pipeline it is going through. Its distortion though is lower than Direct mode however as reflected in the red graph.

Most remarkable difference came in Jitter test:

Emotiva RMC-A Home Theater Dolby Atmos Processor Version 1x9 Jitter Audio Measurements.png


What looked like a hardware problem was a software stage that was modulating the input akin to what jitter does.

Conclusions
The big turn off for me in the original review was not just one thing, but so many things not working right. The new version cuts out the number of problematic tests way down, resulting in much improved performance. I can't yet recommend the processor due to lack of Dirac support as of this writing. If that were to become available, I would give it that.

FYI, I spoke to Emotiva folks about an hour. Much better people than I gave them credit for prior to that. They have a tough job to do, integrating a number of black boxes without much leverage on their many technology suppliers. I have been in their shoes (and the other side as technology provider), and feel the pain. I offered my help on their future development should they need it.
 
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Blumlein 88

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Amazing. When you think no one is paying attention vs when slothful decisions are exposed and a company actually has to put nose to grindstone and earn their rep. Now if only Amir's review had enough influence to get Marantz to actually try instead of knocking out good enough feature laden models.
 

Maconi

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Note that I cleaned up the above graph, taking out the 2.7 volt output of the HTP-1 as that was not a fair comparison against likes of RMC-1 which produce 4 volt output.

You can see the improvement easier when we compare THD+N against output voltage:

View attachment 53016

Did you ever produce a SINAD vs Measured Level chart for the HTP-1? Apologies if I missed it. I'm just curious as to where its "peak performance" area is (since it seems to have tested better at 2.7Vrms than at 4Vrms).

I also wonder if it would look any different now that they've released a firmware update for the issue, although they still have a jitter issue to figure out.
 
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amirm

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Did you ever produce a SINAD vs Measured Level chart for the HTP-1?
No, not a graph like I am doing now. I will be running this test from here on.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Also just FYI, unless I'm confused you've mixed up the XMC-1 and the RMC-1 on this chart o_O lol.
Ouch. I thought something was wrong with it. :( Let me fix....
 
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