Emotiva UMC-1. Any thoughts on this unit?
Dabutcher
Posts: 2,596
I know everyone here seems to really like the Pioneer series SC recievers. I have two amps for HT duty and was wondering instead of spending a thousand for Pioneer w 140 x 7. I would try the Emotiva UMC-1 for $499.99 ? I am happy w my two Marantz (sr6001,sr5001). But I was looking for new options or newer options? As always thanks to this group. You all have helped me alot! Darryl
MIT Magnum MH-750, Monster HTS 5100MKII, Sony 77" Class - A80CJ Series - 4K UHD OLED,PS4, Def Tech 15” sub,LSIM 706c, Sunfire Signature Grand 425 x 4,Parasound hca 120, LSiM 702 x 4, Oppo 103D, SDA SRS 1.2, Pioneer Elite SC63 , Pioneer Elite BDP-05 “Why did you get married if you wanted big speakers?”
Post edited by Dabutcher on
Comments
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after hearing about all the issues with the UMC I would stay away. I think the other units out there can offer better SQ.
Also the room correction on the Emo is terrible and would always set people's speakers to the wrong levels and subs were not very well done.
There was also problems with drop outs, pops, clicking etc.
I think emo amps for HT are OK but would stay away from their pre/pro as this is teh 2nd one now that has some bugs. Read the AVS forum for more details on it and I know I've posted before on the UMC here on the forum. -
So what's a good pre/pro that does 3d and the new HD audio formats, for a good price???2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's
Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses
Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's -
falconcry72 wrote: »So what's a good pre/pro that does 3d and the new HD audio formats, for a good price???
I am also interested in knowing some viable options for this. For the most part I like my Onkyo, but I have a couple qualms with it as far as how the dynamic volume works.AVR: Onkyo TX-NR808
Amp: Emotiva XPA-5 200 watts x 5
Fronts: Polk Monitor 70 Series II
Center: Polk CS2 Series II
Surrounds: Polk Monitor 70 Series II
Sub: HSU VTF-2 MK4
HDTV: 73" Mitsubishi DLP-73740 3D-ready
PS3, 2x XBOX 360, Wii U, Gaming PC. -
falconcry72 wrote: »So what's a good pre/pro that does 3d and the new HD audio formats, for a good price???
Integra DHC-80.3 :biggrin:Gears shared to both living room & bedroom:
Integra DHC-80.3 / Oppo BDP-105 / DirecTV HR24 DVR /APC S15blk PC-UPS
Living room:
LSiM707's / LSiM706c / LSiM702 F/X's / dual JL Audio Fathom F113's / Parasound Halo A51 / Panasonic 65" TC-P65VT50
Bedroom:
Usher Dancer Mini 2 Diamond DMD's / Logitech SB Touch / W4S STP-SE / W4S DAC-2 / W4S ST-1000 / Samsung 52" LN52B750
Other rooms:
Audioengine AP4's / GLOW Audio Sub One / audio-gd NFB-3 DAC / Audioengine N22
audio-gd NFB-10.2 / Denon AH-D7000 -
There is a reason why it's only 499. I also heard about all the issues with this preamp. Todays' market of preamps are not that great and not that cheap. It actually makes sense to use a receiver as a preamp if you can find one that suits your needs if you want to use external amps. Not exactly the best way to go but what are you going to do?Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
I agree with Dan
When it comes to a smaller budget then a receiver and amp is the best value for performance. Getting a HT pre does not mean getting great sound -
mantis,Very go point on that UMC-1 thats way i passed on it.Now some have it with no problem's at all with it.But some do,i went with a H/K3600 up from my H/K2600 for the pre-outs and it been great.I want a Preamp but like you said not cheap.
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Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes
Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables
Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
Three 20 amp circuits. -
Does the cary 12 ht pre have any form of room correction software ? -
polkfarmboy wrote: »Does the cary 12 ht pre have any form of room correction software ?
Yes it does. Check out page 36 of the User Guide found here: http://www.caryaudio.com/pdfs/manuals_2012/Cinema12_manual.pdf -
Alright nay-sayers here is my take after a few days with the emo. I just bought mine used from ebay for 457 shipped and it came with the latest firmware + the upgrade card (currently on ebay for 175 bin). I replaced my marantz sr7002 receiver with the emo to try a pre/pro instead of a receiver doing the work. Though this isn't an official review nor have I spent a lot of time with it, I'm pretty impressed so far. The audio quality in my opinion is a lot more detailed. I have run my squeezebox, sacds, ps3 for blu ray and games, and the directv through it and I've had positive audio improvements on everything besides the DTV which I can't notice a thing (go figure when I watch seinfeld re-runs and simpsons cartoons). To me, the biggest area that makes it stand out is the details I hear in the surround speakers. The Wish You Were Here SACD has been awesomely clear, detailed, and immersive. I'm not saying anything negative about the Marantz but, it didn't seem to suck me in to the sound as well. The emotiva is certainly less noisy than the marantz, the quietness in the speakers in very detailed music is great as well as the unit being dead silent when it's on vs. the really light noise all the electronics in any receivers I've run have.
To continue the good areas of the emotiva, I love that the remote allows you to control the trims on the individual speaker sets without having to go into the menus. Speaking of menus, I also love that you can access and change things on this unit while still watching/listening what you have on as opposed to the marantz and other units I've owned.
Now for the bad. To be honest, I wanted the UMC-1 about two years ago when I ended up getting the marantz instead. I got scared away because of threads like this where everyone only trashed it because of it's bugs and "bass management issues". The price was right this time and I just wanted to swap some things around when I could. I wish I could say the emo was perfect but, this is the bad part of the review. I have noticed a few light popping noises out of my speakers from it when changing songs / skipping previews / commercials changing formats. It happened a few times right out of the box the other night and I was immediately shocked and annoyed. However, since the first night where it happened 3 times, it's only happened twice since and I've been running it strong all day today with it only happening one time. So, with that, I'm really not concerned about it. It's not loud enough to be annoying if it happens once a day. My other minor gripe so far is that compared to the marantz it's a little slow in changing audio formats. Sometimes when switching channels there is a 1/2 second sound delay compared to the picture as it switches gears.
Overall, I'm very happy so far with the switch. Again, the marantz was great but I wanted to change it up. For the haters out there, just try one out or listen to when when you can. It's not for everyone and it isn't perfect, but I bet I would have found some issues with the marantz av7005 besides the 3x price tag. Sure, as bluefox said, the cinema 12 is amazing. I spent some time with one at an audio shop here in denver but, I don't have the funding to double the cost of my entire system on a single piece of gear!
Keep flaming away everyone, but seriously for 500 bucks, I think it would trash almost any receiver if you ran it as a pre/pro. -
Yes it does. Check out page 36 of the User Guide found here: http://www.caryaudio.com/pdfs/manuals_2012/Cinema12_manual.pdf
Most use room correction for movies, so I found the following from the manual odd. Maybe it's a misprint?
The room equalization (EQ) technology adopted by the Cinema 12 provides a superb listening experience when it is utilized for music playback. We defeat the auto EQ function during movie playback with Dolby Digital or DTS movie soundtracks. -
grimmace19 wrote: »Alright nay-sayers here is my take after a few days with the emo. I just bought mine used from ebay for 457 shipped and it came with the latest firmware + the upgrade card (currently on ebay for 175 bin). I replaced my marantz sr7002 receiver with the emo to try a pre/pro instead of a receiver doing the work. Though this isn't an official review nor have I spent a lot of time with it, I'm pretty impressed so far. The audio quality in my opinion is a lot more detailed. I have run my squeezebox, sacds, ps3 for blu ray and games, and the directv through it and I've had positive audio improvements on everything besides the DTV which I can't notice a thing (go figure when I watch seinfeld re-runs and simpsons cartoons). To me, the biggest area that makes it stand out is the details I hear in the surround speakers. The Wish You Were Here SACD has been awesomely clear, detailed, and immersive. I'm not saying anything negative about the Marantz but, it didn't seem to suck me in to the sound as well. The emotiva is certainly less noisy than the marantz, the quietness in the speakers in very detailed music is great as well as the unit being dead silent when it's on vs. the really light noise all the electronics in any receivers I've run have.
To continue the good areas of the emotiva, I love that the remote allows you to control the trims on the individual speaker sets without having to go into the menus. Speaking of menus, I also love that you can access and change things on this unit while still watching/listening what you have on as opposed to the marantz and other units I've owned.
Now for the bad. To be honest, I wanted the UMC-1 about two years ago when I ended up getting the marantz instead. I got scared away because of threads like this where everyone only trashed it because of it's bugs and "bass management issues". The price was right this time and I just wanted to swap some things around when I could. I wish I could say the emo was perfect but, this is the bad part of the review. I have noticed a few light popping noises out of my speakers from it when changing songs / skipping previews / commercials changing formats. It happened a few times right out of the box the other night and I was immediately shocked and annoyed. However, since the first night where it happened 3 times, it's only happened twice since and I've been running it strong all day today with it only happening one time. So, with that, I'm really not concerned about it. It's not loud enough to be annoying if it happens once a day. My other minor gripe so far is that compared to the marantz it's a little slow in changing audio formats. Sometimes when switching channels there is a 1/2 second sound delay compared to the picture as it switches gears.
Overall, I'm very happy so far with the switch. Again, the marantz was great but I wanted to change it up. For the haters out there, just try one out or listen to when when you can. It's not for everyone and it isn't perfect, but I bet I would have found some issues with the marantz av7005 besides the 3x price tag. Sure, as bluefox said, the cinema 12 is amazing. I spent some time with one at an audio shop here in denver but, I don't have the funding to double the cost of my entire system on a single piece of gear!
Keep flaming away everyone, but seriously for 500 bucks, I think it would trash almost any receiver if you ran it as a pre/pro.
Thats a very interesting observation -
Any piece of gear that popped even once a day sure as hell wouldn't stay here long. I had enough of that with vinyl.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
If my vinyl does not stop the pop soon they will become frisbees. I do like the vinyl but the CDs sure sound good. Ok.........back on point now. Sorry to hijack the thread.Any piece of gear that popped even once a day sure as hell wouldn't stay here long. I had enough of that with vinyl.SDA2BTL
Marantz CD5004
Adcom GFA-545
Bottlehead Quickie Tube Preamp -
I purchased the UMC-1 at launch. I've hooked up my laptop to it at least a half-dozen times to download the latest firmware. I have never, ever experienced so many software errors that required extensive user firmware fixes. These firmware fixes required installing multiple files in very specific sequences - and, with a very specific USB cable too (my printer one wouldn't work). Anyway, now that the very latest firmware is installed, the UMC-1 works - just ok. It still has an occasional glitch. But, its no longer a considerable annoyance. The sound quality is pretty good. The picture quality is pretty good. The use-ability of the unit is pretty good. And, finally, things pretty much work the way they were originally promised a few years ago. I recently sold my upgrade card for almost $200 on E-bay. So, that was a bonus. Would I recommend buying the UMC-1 today for $500? I think I would. That is a good price-point for this piece of equipment. It's not great. But, it's good for $500. I did previously use a Denon AVR as a pre-pro and the UMC-1 is much better/cleaner-sounding than that. Give it a shot. For $500, you really aren't going to fine anything cheaper. And, anything better is likely to cost at least double. Now, one thing to know... the UMC-1 is NOT 3D-compatible at the $500 price-point. I think they are promising to offer a 3D UMC-1 soon, but honestly, I'd be afraid of the programming being glitchy. I think this latest release was the ONLY one that even came close to being acceptable. And, its very sad that I had to wait 18 months to get something that barely meets expectations.
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Just say no...
My Pioneer elite is amazing as a pre/pro, and will be going with it flying solo in my HT rig when I move into our new home sometime this summer.The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Man John, didn't you just move into a new house ? You moving again ? How the heck am I suppose to steal those monoblocks if you keep moving ? It's like trying to find that pea under the paper cup for christ sake....:cheesygrin:HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Man John, didn't you just move into a new house ? You moving again ? How the heck am I suppose to steal those monoblocks if you keep moving ? It's like trying to find that pea under the paper cup for christ sake....:cheesygrin:
I learned way back in aught-eight that the beat way to keep a Chicagoan from robbing you blind and forcing hope and change down your throat was to move often. Somehow my GPS effed up and I ended up on the wrong coast!:cheesygrin:The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Pioneer elite AVR's aint worth the cheap plastic face plates thats glued onto them. Go for the emo at $500 and dont waste your money on cheap garbage like pioneer elite's
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polkfarmboy wrote: »Pioneer elite AVR's aint worth the cheap plastic face plates thats glued onto them. Go for the emo at $500 and dont waste your money on cheap garbage like pioneer elite's
What are you drinking? Pio is much better than Emo when it comes to receivers. Sorry your wrong on this one for sure.
So grimmace, you call me a nay-sayer but you have a unit that pops all the time. "I've been running it strong all day today with it only happening one time." Only happened once today? That is not a recommendation it is more of a damnation of the piece. Emo is built for those that don't know better.
To the OP, Take it from someone that learned the hard way. Emo is not very good. Pioneer will be more than enough for your needs and sound better doing it than almost any receiver in the price range. -
Joe, you are the man. Thanks for your input. A single pop in 8 hours definitely means I'll throw it away. Please start writing for all of the audio magazines as you are far more knowledgable than anybody else.
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Originally Posted by polkfarmboy
Pioneer elite AVR's aint worth the cheap plastic face plates thats glued onto them. Go for the emo at $500 and dont waste your money on cheap garbage like pioneer elite's
Wow, just wow! :rolleyes:Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I thought you guys would have known I was being sarcastic? I know I might be kinda clumsy but I aint completley retarded. I own an emo amp and its ughhhhhh I own a pioneer elite and its woohooooo
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The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
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Pioneer Elite receivers will smoke the Emotiva!!! Talk about comparing apples and oranges.. Emotiva should stick to building amps and quit looking like the Walmart of audio, I think their amps are great for those on a budget, the rest of their stuff will never see the foxhole. I have seen it heard it all and it's not all that. I will recommend their amps for those looking for something new and not wanting to spend a lot of coin, and IMO for an HT rig they get the job done..
Emout... -
^ Larry, I dare you to muster up the balls to stop by this weekend and give the umc a listen!
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grimmace19 wrote: »^ Larry, I dare you to muster up the balls to stop by this weekend and give the umc a listen!
LOL!!! Ok sounds good!!! Tomorrow I have to work, maybe Sunday?? -
Any time you want man, any time at all.
:cheesygrin: 
