Emotiva RMC-1+ AV Processor Review

[daniboun]

That seems to be the XMC 2+, not the RMC-1+.

Source below... I see RMC 1+....

Emotiva RMC-1+ - HIFI MEDIA

Emotiva RMC-1+. Emotiva RMC-1+ je 16kanálový AV procesor pro domácí kino s podporou formátů Dolby Atmos, DTS:X Pro a IMAX Enhanced. Nabízí konfiguraci až 9.1.6, špičkové DAC převodníky AKM AK4490 Verita, duální DSP čipy Analog Devices a pokročilou kalibraci Dirac Live. Vybaven 8× HDMI 2.1 vstupy...

www.hifimedia.cz

 

[XaVierDK]

From inside

View attachment 477945

Wow. They really just dropped a Mean Well PSU in there and called it a day..

 

[thunderchicken]

$5.5k is not a great price point for the features or the performance. This does not meet my expectations for Emotiva, which until recently meant a solid price to performance ratio. Either their marketing failed here with the price point, or their engineering team did.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Alas, I am an owner of an RMC-1L. I started with the XMC-1. Upgraded the HDMI board, then upgraded to the RMC-1L. I have been waiting on this review to see if it worth me spending cash, bread, money on upgrading it yet again. I don't think that'll happen now.

For me the worst part of owning this unit has been its unreliability. It's so fickle, you have to develop a strategy to turn it on. Bizarre, I know.

I have the RMC hooked up to a power conditioner as I found that it would spontaneously misbehave, especially around dinner time with lots of appliances going. This is my turn-on routine:

With my projector turned off, I turn on the power conditioner first, then the RMC, which takes about 2 minutes to fully boot. There are tell tale signs that this is proceeding smoothly. About 10% of the time it doesn't get to the end of the boot process, so I have to turn everything off and wait 10 minutes then try again.

Once the RMC has booted up I wait a little while, then I take it out of standby. Once it has settled down and tuner looks like it is working, I turn on the power amps and power-up my active speakers. Last I put on the projector. I use the remote to switch the HDMI inputs, avoiding cycling though inputs, waiting about 15 seconds between input changes. This a major reason for crashing the RMC.

Then, if we are lucky, we get to watch a movie. However, if I'm using my Apple TV and the audio codec changes, I will have to change in the audio processing settings to get the RMC to get in sync with the audio codec. It's like it's possessed by some vengeful demon.

It's painful. My wife hates this box more than any other in the house. Yet I have given Emotiva the benefit of the doubt for a decade, hoping that will finally get their shit together. Alas, after Amir's review, I think that's it. They seem like really nice people. They just can't deliver a product that works well.

Thanks again Amir for your stellar work. I think you are now the cat among the pigeons on the EmotivaLounge boards.

The Emo boards are censored. You should have given up long ago. You would be better off with a BB 300 AVR. Learned my lesson 10 years ago.

 

[JSmith]

Source below

Could be wrong and disagrees with the embedded source link I provided... if we look closely;

JSmith

 

[TimoJ]

This shows how much of a deal and opportunity the Monolith HTP-1 was.

It still is, with Dirac ART coming with the next firmware.
Meanwhile, Emotiva hasn't even managed to include support for Dirac Live Bass Control (DLBC)

 

[tamagaba]

From inside

View attachment 477945

This is a Mean Well HRPG PSU from Taiwan about 200 dollar

 

[shuppatsu]

Wow. They really just dropped a Mean Well PSU in there and called it a day..

Meanwell make great power supplies! Given the problems with power on in this thread I suspect much worse than that.

I voted “Poor,” not because of the mediocre performance which I suspect wouldn’t matter to anyone with typically inefficient speakers, but because of the harrowing tales of unreliability discussed here. Small sample size be damned!

They nailed the design though.

 

[t.Bidstrup]

Has there been a single Emotiva product that did not disappoint through here?

 

[F1308]

As said long ago: not buying anything without the ASR rating on it.
Also, the higher the price, the more suspicious I go.
Topping, I am emotivAly loving my still functioning top-notch PA5.

 

[Waxx]

What a strange noise issue, this should not be like that. It's clear that the design is amateurish for me, not looking at noise and distortion the way it should be.

And for the price they go for, this is crap. That price should give you at least decent performance

 

[Joachim Herbert]

Why, oh why?

 

[tamagaba]

Can't a switching power supply introduce noise?

 

[Fidji]

I've always been of the opinion these AV Processors are rip-offs: Worst electronics, placed in oversized cases with all kinds of flashy lights so the rubes think they're getting something, and lack of support and replacement components so three years down the road another $5 k purchase is required if they want to continue to show Disney Pixar films on family movie nights. All that, and lousy performance most of all.

And really, what are these processors but uni-tasking firmware driven computers married to multichannel Dacs and amps--and the crappiest dacs and amps at that?

So I keep harping on it: Why can't they just give us a piece of software that does all the processing, let us run it on our PCs and send an LPCM stream of the decoded sound to a great multichannel Dac, like a Motu, or an Octo or a Topping? Not only would such a set up take up less real estate in our living rooms, but it would be more energy efficient, and certainly would not need to cost anywhere near $5 k or more.

Sell PCs with the licensing fees for Atmos, Dts-x and Auro 3D already bundled in. JRiver already has the software, and Dac manufacturers could as easily make 16 channel USB Dacs as they do two channel ones. Computer manufacturers could then upgrade video HDMI output to include Dolby Vision and HDR+, and eARC. And the computer that does all that could be the size of a pack of playing cards and cost way, way less than $5 k.

That's just a saner way to do things and it would encourage more people to get into home theater with modest and affordable rigs. Rather than trying to sell this stuff exclusively to the guys with 5000 sf McMansions in the exurbs, the Codec overlords would find themselves making more money by finding millions of people willing to add Atmos decoding to their PC's for an extra $50 or so. There is more than one way to make your money, guys. The whole, entire business model needs to be rethought.

Good review, Amir, thank you.

If we factor in reality instead of emotions:

- you have a choice of good performing, well engineered AV gear [see green section of scoreboard]
- you can get some of them for very good money and I do not see specifically AV reciever/processor being the bottleneck to “get into home theater”.
- even low-end consumer sub is quite often more expensive than respectable AVR
- this is not 1995, with new standard and functions coming every 3 months. If you have HDMI 2.0&Atmos you are not missing anything in terms of functionality vs newer units - you can watch 4K movies in immersive audio format. 5 years old D&M units are absolutely OK. Only meaningful progress is DRC, so yes, if you want the latest Dirac iteration it is time to watch for some good deal.

- this is just my opinion - much more people will get into HT, once we start to see really good soundbars, and some people will want upgrade to get even better experience, as we can see big TV’s getting cheaper and cheaper, good quality projectors are available etc. I can see as biggest barrier for most of the families, especially here in Europe and probably in cities being the space.

But this specific model is a real disappointment, I have a good friend that is die-hard Emotiva fan, and was on the fence to upgrade, I think he will go for Marantz.

 

[DearSX]

but but but Youtube reviewers said Emotiva can punch well about its price tag!

lol, as an Emotiva Flex amp owner I can't complain.

 

[Oddball]

But probably people with this amount of speakers connected to an amp with this amount of channels don't care about fidelity, their proud is in the number.

Why would you say that? And what is really "fidelity" in the multi-channel area, especially HT?

 

[Oddball]

I've always been of the opinion these AV Processors are rip-offs: Worst electronics, placed in oversized cases with all kinds of flashy lights so the rubes think they're getting something, and lack of support and replacement components so three years down the road another $5 k purchase is required if they want to continue to show Disney Pixar films on family movie nights. All that, and lousy performance most of all.

And really, what are these processors but uni-tasking firmware driven computers married to multichannel Dacs and amps--and the crappiest dacs and amps at that?

So I keep harping on it: Why can't they just give us a piece of software that does all the processing, let us run it on our PCs and send an LPCM stream of the decoded sound to a great multichannel Dac, like a Motu, or an Octo or a Topping? Not only would such a set up take up less real estate in our living rooms, but it would be more energy efficient, and certainly would not need to cost anywhere near $5 k or more.

Sell PCs with the licensing fees for Atmos, Dts-x and Auro 3D already bundled in. JRiver already has the software, and Dac manufacturers could as easily make 16 channel USB Dacs as they do two channel ones. Computer manufacturers could then upgrade video HDMI output to include Dolby Vision and HDR+, and eARC. And the computer that does all that could be the size of a pack of playing cards and cost way, way less than $5 k.

That's just a saner way to do things and it would encourage more people to get into home theater with modest and affordable rigs. Rather than trying to sell this stuff exclusively to the guys with 5000 sf McMansions in the exurbs, the Codec overlords would find themselves making more money by finding millions of people willing to add Atmos decoding to their PC's for an extra $50 or so. There is more than one way to make your money, guys. The whole, entire business model needs to be rethought.

Good review, Amir, thank you.

I do appreciate your opinion and probably many would align with that. But I would rather pay 2x what I paid for AV-10 processor than ever touch PC again for the HT use. Been there, done that, but love what I have right now. Just works all the time, every time.

And obviously, people should not consider Emotiva at all.

 

[prerich]

About 10-20 years ago, the industry tried making what you propose and marketed them as “HTPC” machines. They didn’t sell well.

It was because people would make their own and not buy the branded ones (PCs). I also agree that they should sell a motherboard with all the licensing onboard (Dirac, Audyssey, Dolby, whoever wants in), I'd pay up to $1000 for a motherboard like that. In the days of 7.1, I exclusively used a PC as my prepro with an Asus Essence XT with the daughter card. I did all of my EQ with JRiver, it was an excellent system and it was a blast to tinker with. Now they have motherboards with over 20 usb 3.0 slots - they can't tell me that what I'm suggesting can't be done. If all we get is trash for prepros, let us geeks build our own (that's what a Trinnov is anyway).

 

[prerich]

As said long ago: not buying anything without the ASR rating on it.
Also, the higher the price, the more suspicious I go.
Topping, I am emotivAly loving my still functioning top-notch PA5.

What are you using for HT or are you two channel only?

 

[prerich]

I've avoided purchasing Emotiva for quite a while, not because of fidelity, but because of buggy software. I too hoped that this would be the processor that possessed everything, but alas - it seems that they've fixed the software but went down in quality. Take a look at those rankings - older Emotiva gear seems to have better quality/fidelity than the newer stuff...by a large margin.