Emotiva XMC-2 Review (AV Processor)

[beeface]

I don't think @amirm has contacts that run deep enough to sponsor the development of a new/niche product offering. Add to that the fact that even if every member of ASR was in on the group buy... that's barely a blip on the balance sheet of a company that large. I'd guess the changes in the production line alone (assuming everything was already designed and ready) wouldn't be offset by a few thousand units margin... unless they were charging much more.

I know, I know, I'm just daydreaming aloud

 

[DACs_Lover]

Waiting for Topping to enter the AV Processor market and do it right.

I have never known that a link like this exists. Thank you

 

[respice finem]

...The XMC-2 reminds me of getting a new job at a company and taking over a messy project with tons of problems. Lesson I learned there was to just ditch then thing and start over with a clean design...

Maybe such a disaster is a chance for the company to define the exact reasons for each of the issues shown, to avoid them later in a new design. Thanks to Amir, hoping nobody will notice won't work any more (let alone in this price range).

 

[GimeDsp]

All emotiva gear I purchased went back within 30 day window, didn't do it for me.

 

[laudio]

So $3K for a piece of junk then? I love headless panther reviews like these, makes my day.

Then again maybe it was a defective unit? Who knows with that glitchy output.

For AVRs or pre/pros Denon sounds like the only the way to go these days. Or if you are like me just find a high quality dinosaur from the early 2000's, feed it optical in from a Monoprice Blackbird and be done with it.

 

[anphex]

That's a shame. By their claims and spec sheets I used to think Emotiva is real high end but budget company. But seemingly they enqueue with the other average consumer products. That's good marketing for you. Nothing special to see there.

The only thing I can hope for is that manufacturers improve their designs after getting such reviews. A 3000 $ processor getting beaten by the secondary pre outs of a 1200 $ Denon AVR speaks volumes.

 

[GXAlan]

Following up on this. I understand Amir has contacts at D&M and this would be a relatively niche product, so here's the pitch: group buy funded ASR x Denon processor.

Sony has used crowdfunding to bring some products to market that they were unsure of. It’s basically guaranteed preorders and lets them be a bit more ambitious than usual but not so ambitious as something like the SS-AR1, TA-E1 and TA-N1 which is a guaranteed loss.

While there is a chip shortage though, we probably won’t see much new stuff for a while. I am personally surprised that we aren’t seeing software updates for something like Sony 360 reality audio coming out. The McIntosh MX123 which is designed in partnership with Sound United does have that support but nothing else. In contrast, I feel as if IMAX Enhanced software updates got released extensively even though there is minimal content.

 

[DACs_Lover]

Youtubers who recommend this online also lose their heads too.
Subjective reviewers are useless to me now. Long live AudioscienceReview.

 

[gags11]

I bought a gen 1 Emotiva XPA-3 amplifier in 2009 for $599. I thought that was a good value for a 200watt into 8Ohm x3 amplifier at the time.

It still works as advertised in my HT for surround channels. I guess things may have changed since at Emotiva.

 

[respice finem]

Youtubers who recommend this online also lose their heads too.
Subjective reviewers are useless to me now. Long live AudioscienceReview.

It shows how little it takes to cheat the ears, sometimes (provided it's not all "payola" in those YT reviews).

 

[Lsc]

So $3K for a piece of junk then? I love headless panther reviews like these, makes my day.

Then again maybe it was a defective unit? Who knows with that glitchy output.

For AVRs or pre/pros Denon sounds like the only the way to go these days. Or if you are like me just find a high quality dinosaur from the early 2000's, feed it optical in from a Monoprice Blackbird and be done with it.

It really is very confusing. Emotiva’s chief engineer said for two channel the XMC2 and the RMC1 was identical so I bought the XMC2. And based on my personal experience it’s is great sounding unit.

So I don’t get how the measurements can be so different. Maybe emotiva will have an explanation.

 

[laudio]

It really is very confusing. Emotiva’s chief engineer said for two channel the XMC2 and the RMC1 was identical so I bought the XMC2. And based on my personal experience it’s is great sounding unit.

So I don’t get how the measurements can be so different. Maybe emotiva will have an explanation.

Emotiva won't have any explanation. $3K is $3K. If it sounds good to you who care, that's all that matters.

 

[CrustyToad]

Or if you are like me just find a high quality dinosaur from the early 2000's, feed it optical in from a Monoprice Blackbird and be done with it.

My setup exactly. Denon AVC-A1D fed by optical while waiting for something better to come by or an offer on the new Denons

 

[laudio]

My setup exactly. Denon AVC-A1D fed by optical while waiting for something better to come by or an offer on the new Denons

Yep. For me a B&K AVR-307 built like a brick $hithouse that does the job. I don't need all the modern features in my setup. And think it cost me $50.

 

[Koeitje]

I like that they dropped all the useless legacy connections you see on other processors, keeps the size in check. But I guess they missed the part about it also having to perform.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

I use a Pioneer VSX LX503 AVR as a processor for Dolby Atmos. It has a slight delay between the front left and right channels that I compensate for with speaker distance adjustment, which is really too coarse for a perfectly satisfactory correction so slight speaker location changes in the millimeters range helps. If the delay changes with frequency as in the Emotiva, then it’ll never be fully satisfactory.

The Pioneer‘s functions also occasionally go all sluggish and Alzheimery, requiring a reset as per the instruction manual.

 

[DSJR]

Not sure how long many of you have been in this game, but the basic performance here would have been regarded as pushing state of the art forty years back. The HiFi Choice amp test books regarded basic distortion levels of -70 to -80dB as pretty much excellent and IMD (19 + 20kHz) of 60dB wasn't sniffed at either. So called reference products (often valved) with distortions in the -40dB range were highly recommended and a certain high end qualified techie 'guru' reviewer who should have known better consistently put it about that measurements played no part in how a piece of high end equipment 'sounded.' - I'm thinking C-J and ARC confections of old. Mind you, he had a reputation as a burgeoning high end 'go-to' reviewer status to consider back then I felt.

It's great to see the above figures bettered so easily these days, but I would ask for caution as regards chasing (inaudible?) numbers here. I was told years ago that our brains processing of visuals is around 70% compared to auditory and again if you can cast your minds back before home theatre systems came along, how we put up (and still do) with truly ****** sound from our TV's which was tolerable purely because we had a picture to take most of our interest. I suspect that's why tech performance of these AV products is so old fashioned in terms of distortion and so on, as the end user almost certainly wouldn't ever notice it. Hopefully reviews like this will lift the lid on such attitudes.

 

[charleski]

some options would take as much as 5 seconds to take effect (e.g. User EQ). Worse yet, it would buffer all the clicks and then act on them in sequence making it maddening to operate.

OMG!!! This sort of thing drives me absolutely crazy!

"Do something, damn machine! ... No! Stop! Aargh!"

 

[muslhead]

Could somone explain how the "two channels being out of sync" manifests itself when actually listening. I understand we want things to be perfect but how does this actually affect the sound quality?

Also, I wish Amir had tested the XLR Balanced two channel input while setting the input mode to "Reference Stereo". My undersanding is this is a direct path to the volume control with no DSP enhancements. It would have been nice to see the SINAD on this type of connection. I guess we will never know.

I agree.
This is the one mode that has worked well for me. It would be nice to know if they at least got this piece implemented correctly or if it too, is FUBAR

 

[muslhead]

Interesting - my XMC2 is way better than what this review is saying. Maybe there are variations in manufacturing but my XMC2 is serving me well. From 2 channel listening to Dolby Atmos.

Or maybe, it isnt and you dont know or have noticed the difference?
Until i had something to compare it to, i too, my thinking was also misguided.