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Emotiva XMC-2 Review (AV Processor)

CygnusX

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8500 cause of
*would match my speaker setup of 7.1.6
*has preout for all those
*can be recycled in another room without adding more external amps (when the time comes)
*has a proven room correction
 

Sal1950

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8500 cause of
*would match my speaker setup of 7.1.6
*has preout for all those
*can be recycled in another room without adding more external amps (when the time comes)
*has a proven room correction
Understand, Cool.
Wish I had the room to add the side rears but that ain't gonna happen here.
Currently just doing 5.2.4.
 

DonH56

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I just got an email that Emotiva is ending their upgrade program at the end of December. I have an XMC-1 I've been holding to upgrade to an XMC-2 when they got all the bugs out. Some two years later people are still having problems, and I have not heard that they've fixed the latest bass bug. I hate to junk it, but also hate throwing good money after bad to upgrade, so am rather torn. The XMC-1 took about a year to get "stable", with another glitch of 6-8 months after the HDMI upgrade, but the the XMC-2 seems to be taking much longer. I may just bag it and give the XMC-1 to my boys to fight over/with. It works, mostly, after the last FW update that I did (probably going on two years ago now). I don't need it an XMC-2 right now, and am not really up for the hassle of upgrading just to try to sell it and break even.
 
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I just got an email that Emotiva is ending their upgrade program at the end of December. I have an XMC-1 I've been holding to upgrade to an XMC-2 when they got all the bugs out. Some two years later people are still having problems, and I have not heard that they've fixed the latest bass bug. I hate to junk it, but also hate throwing good money after bad to upgrade, so am rather torn. The XMC-1 took about a year to get "stable", with another glitch of 6-8 months after the HDMI upgrade, but the the XMC-2 seems to be taking much longer. I may just bag it and give the XMC-1 to my boys to fight over/with. It works, mostly, after the last FW update that I did (probably going on two years ago now). I don't need it an XMC-2 right now, and am not really up for the hassle of upgrading just to try to sell it and break even.
The next firmware update is supposed to address the BM bug, but it remains to be seen if that will fix it or not. Or for that matter when it will come out although it was reported by an Emo employee to be "imminent" on Oct 25...so we shall see. There's supposed to be fixes for HDMI issues as well but I do not know what that entails.

 

RichB

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I just got an email that Emotiva is ending their upgrade program at the end of December. I have an XMC-1 I've been holding to upgrade to an XMC-2 when they got all the bugs out. Some two years later people are still having problems, and I have not heard that they've fixed the latest bass bug. I hate to junk it, but also hate throwing good money after bad to upgrade, so am rather torn. The XMC-1 took about a year to get "stable", with another glitch of 6-8 months after the HDMI upgrade, but the the XMC-2 seems to be taking much longer. I may just bag it and give the XMC-1 to my boys to fight over/with. It works, mostly, after the last FW update that I did (probably going on two years ago now). I don't need it an XMC-2 right now, and am not really up for the hassle of upgrading just to try to sell it and break even.

Do you Dirac or PEQ on your XMC-1?
Dirac is a more complicated with the external Pi protocol translator box.

I am a bit of a minimalist after many Dirac calibrations using the XMC-1.
I employ some bass management., PEQ, and sometime, horrors, Direct/Pure Direct.
The Dolby upmixer for 2.0 content is extraordinary on the RMC-1. I absolutely love it.
That may be true on other processors, but I do not feel that way in a different system with the Denon X3700.

I'd consider the upgrade, but to the RMC-1L because not everyone has a horror show.
Anecdotally, there have been more reports of firmware upgrade issues on the XMC-2 than the RMC-1. That could be because there are more XMC-2s...

- Rich
 

Lsc

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I just got an email that Emotiva is ending their upgrade program at the end of December. I have an XMC-1 I've been holding to upgrade to an XMC-2 when they got all the bugs out. Some two years later people are still having problems, and I have not heard that they've fixed the latest bass bug. I hate to junk it, but also hate throwing good money after bad to upgrade, so am rather torn. The XMC-1 took about a year to get "stable", with another glitch of 6-8 months after the HDMI upgrade, but the the XMC-2 seems to be taking much longer. I may just bag it and give the XMC-1 to my boys to fight over/with. It works, mostly, after the last FW update that I did (probably going on two years ago now). I don't need it an XMC-2 right now, and am not really up for the hassle of upgrading just to try to sell it and break even.
Yes that’s what I hear about other people having issues. I don’t have any issues with my XMC2 but it’s a little irritating that they are ending the trade-in program without first delivering DLBC.

I personally don’t share the same optimistic views that they have on these processors being upgradable blah blah blah. The Emotiva processors looked dated when they first came out - imho they are in way over their head and the fact that they may never deliver DLBC (they hadn’t mentioned it all year in 2021), it’s probably a good decision to not make them force your hand.

Maybe there is a stock pile of Emotiva processors and this is one way of getting rid of inventory? (Pure speculation on my part).
 

DonH56

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@RichB - I used Dirac Live. My room needs it and I use bass management for my subs movies or music. I liked it, though had to fiddle quite a bit to integrate the subs due to the way Emotiva's signal chain works.

@Lsc - My XMC-1 had one major bug when I bought it, about a year after it was first released, that was fixed quickly with a FW patch then it worked OK until the HDMI board upgrade (a painful experience). It was working OK when I boxed it up. I gave up waiting to upgrade and went a different route to an SDP-75 with a great deal on some B-stock units.

I had always planned to upgrade given it was such a great deal, but at this point I do not need it and worry whether I would get my money back if I decided to sell (plus the hassle of trying to sell, ship, and collect). And of course if DLBC will ever be released, and what would happen if I sold it and there were lots of issues in their system. It's a lot of money to write off as a painful learning experience but that's probably what will happen. I may see if anyone wants a used XMC-1 fairly cheap.
 

WLVCA

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I followed Emotiva going all the way back to 2007. Purchased quite a bit of their gear way back when.

I never purchased a home theater processor from them although I went so far as to buy one of their 40% off (as I recall) discount cards at one point. Finally sold that card a few years ago after waiting for them to get it right. In my opinion they never did - it was always one issue after another starting with the UMC-1 and every subsequent model after that. Feel fortunate that I never went in that direction with them.

I have no beef with Emotiva - they seem like good people - but a home theater processor that works seems to be beyond their capabilities. They are complex products.
 

pseudoid

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I have no beef with Emotiva - they seem like good people - but a home theater processor that works seems to be beyond their capabilities. They are complex products.
Is this what happened with Outlaw audio products?
I think they saw the writing on the wall and did not want to compete above their "weight class".
I notice that Outlaw website only has one single "receiver" offering (RR2160MkII) and they show a Marantz AVR, if you are searching their website for Outlaw products w/ HDMI interfaces
 

Jbrunwa

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The next firmware update is supposed to address the BM bug, but it remains to be seen if that will fix it or not. Or for that matter when it will come out although it was reported by an Emo employee to be "imminent" on Oct 25...so we shall see. There's supposed to be fixes for HDMI issues as well but I do not know what that entails.

“big code stuff right around the corner” was reported on the 21st, but who’s counting :cool:
 
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“big code stuff right around the corner” was reported on the 21st, but who’s counting :cool:

Not me...except I am haha

Yeah, the post I referenced said imminent on the 25th but yes it was originally mentioned on the 21st
 

Sal1950

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We got to have some good lawyers around here.
You Emo suffers should get a Class Action suite going. ;)
 

CygnusX

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got to spend some hours with the xmc-2 and fw 2.3 +lg cx77" +nvidia sheild going to amp because LG dont pass DTS

upon turning on the tv, xmc2 and amp turned on as well, and about 15 seconds later and multiple black screen later i guess it finally got a good handshake with the shield and everything worked

pressing the netflix button on the LG tv, saw the xmc2 change from hdm1 to ARC.....but no sound. switching with emo remote to hdmi1 and back to arc got sound back

then i pressed amazon Prime on tv remote, no sound.....switched to hdmi1 and back to arc....no sound.....swithed on tv to internal speaker and back to arc....sound returned

while watching movie on prime (atmos), there where two crackles from either rear or height speaker, i went back 20 sec and played scene again and there was no crackle, same happened on netflix DD+5.1, cant get atmos on netflix) watching a bojak horseman a random static/crackle but this time from front or front height, went back to see if it was in the soundtrack but second time around no crackle. lastly i forget what i watched on the shield running SPMC, about 1 hour of watching with no issues......this morning i was watching a movie in atmos and right as the xmc switched to atmos mode it was like all height channels crackled

listening to my cd's that i ripped to mp3 and FLAC....back in the 2000's space was still an issue so i had ripped my stuff to 128kbs/44khz/16bit, as harddrives became cheaper i started re-ripping some cd's and bluray concerts to the best quality....and OMG the snack, crackle, and pop was ...uhmm made my toes curl, this isse was really bad 1 year ago, and it seems like its gotten better, but not fixed.......had this happened with any of the "best buy" brands it would have been returned as defective.....emo forums says its a non issue and wont harm my speakers....im not so sure when i get drunk....uhmm i mean tipsy LOL i tend to listen to loud music and im going through my library of music....omg

anyhow i have decided to cancel the denon 8500HA.....right now im cruising ebay to find a cheap japanese amp with least something that will allow me to run 7.1.4, that will have to do while the industry sorts out hdmi 2.1 and so i can unload the xmc2 while its still worth something....
 

pseudoid

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cheap japanese amp
Do you mean Chinese?
Why go with eBay, when you can find a real bonafide/verified unit that has been tested/posted/PP'd here at ASR?
 

CygnusX

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Do you mean Chinese?
Why go with eBay, when you can find a real bonafide/verified unit that has been tested/posted/PP'd here at ASR?
i meant, pioneer, yamaha, etc.....good point will have a look here at ASR ...TY
 

pseudoid

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i meant, pioneer, yamaha, etc.....good point will have a look here at ASR ...TY
Rude of me! Welcome aboard!
"PP" is the Pink Panther which decides how he is going to pose for the hardware photo-shoots!
ASR's PP is an obtuse 'rating' system, provided for the products his 'associate' @amirm twists knobs on.
 

sealman

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got to spend some hours with the xmc-2 and fw 2.3 +lg cx77" +nvidia sheild going to amp because LG dont pass DTS

upon turning on the tv, xmc2 and amp turned on as well, and about 15 seconds later and multiple black screen later i guess it finally got a good handshake with the shield and everything worked

pressing the netflix button on the LG tv, saw the xmc2 change from hdm1 to ARC.....but no sound. switching with emo remote to hdmi1 and back to arc got sound back

then i pressed amazon Prime on tv remote, no sound.....switched to hdmi1 and back to arc....no sound.....swithed on tv to internal speaker and back to arc....sound returned

while watching movie on prime (atmos), there where two crackles from either rear or height speaker, i went back 20 sec and played scene again and there was no crackle, same happened on netflix DD+5.1, cant get atmos on netflix) watching a bojak horseman a random static/crackle but this time from front or front height, went back to see if it was in the soundtrack but second time around no crackle. lastly i forget what i watched on the shield running SPMC, about 1 hour of watching with no issues......this morning i was watching a movie in atmos and right as the xmc switched to atmos mode it was like all height channels crackled

listening to my cd's that i ripped to mp3 and FLAC....back in the 2000's space was still an issue so i had ripped my stuff to 128kbs/44khz/16bit, as harddrives became cheaper i started re-ripping some cd's and bluray concerts to the best quality....and OMG the snack, crackle, and pop was ...uhmm made my toes curl, this isse was really bad 1 year ago, and it seems like its gotten better, but not fixed.......had this happened with any of the "best buy" brands it would have been returned as defective.....emo forums says its a non issue and wont harm my speakers....im not so sure when i get drunk....uhmm i mean tipsy LOL i tend to listen to loud music and im going through my library of music....omg

anyhow i have decided to cancel the denon 8500HA.....right now im cruising ebay to find a cheap japanese amp with least something that will allow me to run 7.1.4, that will have to do while the industry sorts out hdmi 2.1 and so i can unload the xmc2 while its still worth something....
Arc is problematic on other brands as well but more so on Emotiva it seems.
 

Yetis

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I just got an email that Emotiva is ending their upgrade program at the end of December. I have an XMC-1 I've been holding to upgrade to an XMC-2 when they got all the bugs out. Some two years later people are still having problems, and I have not heard that they've fixed the latest bass bug. I hate to junk it, but also hate throwing good money after bad to upgrade, so am rather torn. The XMC-1 took about a year to get "stable", with another glitch of 6-8 months after the HDMI upgrade, but the the XMC-2 seems to be taking much longer. I may just bag it and give the XMC-1 to my boys to fight over/with. It works, mostly, after the last FW update that I did (probably going on two years ago now). I don't need it an XMC-2 right now, and am not really up for the hassle of upgrading just to try to sell it and break even.
Funny, as I am in the same boat and actually pulled the trigger on the upgrade. I haven't sent in my old processor yet, but now I am very hesitant to send in. My processor has been fairy solid since day one, though does have its occasional hiccup.

Now I wonder if the RMC-1L, isn't the better option?
 

Robh3606

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I upgraded from an XMC-1 to an XMC-2 using the trade in. I had issues with the XMC-2 and it bricked on me. Sent it back and it been fine since. The only remaining issue for me is ARC. It's a bit fussy and sometimes it's fine sometimes not. Typically if I change the TV input on my Vizio it will fix the problem. Seems to be an HDMI handshake issue. No issues at all with DVD player HDMI only ARC through the TV.

Rob :)
 

Loron

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short version, i "love" my xmc-2 so much that i just ordered a denon 8500HA, the day the 8500 arrives the xmc will go on craigslist, i was about to pull the trigger on the monoprice htp1, but the similarities to the xmc2 has me worried that its another unfinished product

long story.:

i was so happy last xmas when the wife got me an xmc-2 and xpa 11 channel amp, things quickly changed though.

im used to pulling my new toy out of the box and just use it, but the xmc-2 had me waiting almost 2 weeks before dirac was registered and ready to use

i hate this thing so much, its glitchy, its slow, it makes nasty noises when mp3, flac ets changes sampling and or bitrate, god forbid your a little too fast on the humongous remote, and you might just crash it....sometimes theres sound from the tv (ARC) sometimes theres not, sometimes there will be brief sound and then it will go away.....sometimes the tv cant find the amp....result is minutes spent switching input in hopes of not having to crawl on all fours to turn it off, wait 30+ seconds to turn on and then another 2 minutes for it to boot.....

kids and wife are so tired of it, that they just go straight to internal tv speaker (lg cx) if they get no sound, or go to the den and just watch on the crappy vizio and pioneer 503, all of which works every single time. for a while i had the 503 in the movie room as i tried to figure out what was going on, but the pioneer worked great, no issues what so ever...it even calibrated just fine using the XPA amp to drive the 3 fronts freeing up some height channels

i have had many surround receivers through the years (pioneer, onkyo, nad, sony and yamaha) all have worked great, and only got upgraded cause a new codec like atmos came out....i figured the emotiva would be an ok bet, its has the number "2" in its name so most gremlins must have been figured out right ? i saw their forums and theres a lot of activity which i thought was great. so i took a chance bought tons of XLR cables, and other goodies to get it up and running....

customer service is fast to point you to their forums, which on the surface sounds like a good thing. until you realize theres thousands of pages, if you ask a question, it gets moved to one of the hundred pages longs threads. have fun spending endless hours sifting through endless threads that in the end might get you no where or you will be barked at for asking a question that was already dealt with on page 233 out of 400 pages. god forbid you complain or bring awareness to an issue, those posts might just vanish, or the fanbois will come after you (usually telling you that just how it is and all the other brands have issues too)

the Dirac calibration, omg it had me frothing around the mouth....after hours of trying to get the software to find the amp, it finally happened and i could run my first calibration. it took about 45 minutes to through all speakers, and then the amp or raberrypi they use froze, amp had crashed, and a minute later Dirac on the pc crashed and or stopped responding. Finally after spending most of the day trying to get it all done it turns out the amp+rasberrypi has to be freshly rebooted and has to have been off for 30+ seconds for the ethernet to be truly reset, so a quick off wait 5-10 secs like with a pc is a no go......i have tried many calibrations, but my initial manual calibration with db meter and measuring tape still sounds better.

im afraid im going to damage my speakers one day when i loud listen to music and the amp inserts one of it pops/crackles etc

so here i am, i gave the xmc-2 and emotiva a year to see if they could fix/improve their product...but they have not....
I have to say that is a pretty good and representative story of a XMC-2 owner! Been there and lived it too. I did get some attention from customer service but in the end the problems are still there. I am wondering if these cracking and popping sounds will ever be solved. I doubt it. these have been there since the beginning and after multiple firmware updates have never been addressed. I guess it is just a bad design.
mine is listed but nobody showed interest so far.
Denon isn’t bad but have you thought about the Anthem?
 
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