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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 27, 2012 15:23:33 GMT -5
I have owned mine since aug of last year, and never really had any of these issues until today. I popped my new Sammy Hagar cd into my old Sony 5 dvd changer, and at volume 24 and below, there is major distortion. Switched to my new(old) Queensryche Operation Mindcrime cd, same thing. Switched to the ps3, same thing. All my sources are hooked with HDMI. I listen to stereo mode exclusively as it is a 2.1 setup. Funny thing is, the distortion goes away when I switch to any other mode(direct,plII etc).
Reloaded defaults, no change. Changed the 5dvd to analog, distortion is gone.
I listen to music usually a couple times a week, and would have noticed this problem before if it was there. Nothing has changed about my setup for a while, and listened to music just the other day with no problems.
Did the umc take a dump on me?
Firmware is 7.02.00.05. The UMC came with .10, and I wanted to upgrade to .19, but when I did, the sub level dropped by about 40 db-essentially disappeared, and .10 is not available to flash, so .05 is what I had to use.
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Post by jason1976 on Apr 27, 2012 18:35:59 GMT -5
Almost the same thing happened to me. There are a few threads around about digital source distortion. I don't know if any have successfully gotten around the issue.
Try changing all your Emoq setting to flat and see if it helps. I can't boost beyond 3 dbs on the eq before I hear it.
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bootman
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Post by bootman on Apr 27, 2012 20:09:34 GMT -5
Call Emo.
You may have a bad board.
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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 29, 2012 9:48:57 GMT -5
After some more investigation, I have found that the eq is the culprit. As obvious as this distortion is, I know I would have heard it before, so I'm wondering why now all of a sudden?
Thx jason1976
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DYohn
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Post by DYohn on Apr 29, 2012 9:52:06 GMT -5
If something changes on its own in any piece of electronic equipment, there has likely been a failure of some sort. If this happened on its own with you changing nothing, sounds to me like it might be time for warranty repairs.
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stiehl11
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Post by stiehl11 on Apr 29, 2012 9:58:23 GMT -5
From a purely personal standpoint, after upgrading firmware or otherwise improving the stack I continually hear things that I didn't hear before (or remember hearing) for weeks after the change. The same thing goes for after allergy season or after a cold. I'm not sure about anyone else.
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Post by Entity on Apr 29, 2012 10:22:12 GMT -5
Mine starts to distort after about 4dB boost in the EQ, I maxed a frequency out the other day to check if that was what was causing it. It was almost comical how garbled it made it.
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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 29, 2012 10:34:39 GMT -5
If something changes on its own in any piece of electronic equipment, there has likely been a failure of some sort. If this happened on its own with you changing nothing, sounds to me like it might be time for warranty repairs. Yes, exactly. As a mechanic for my whole life, when someone asks me what is wrong with their car, my first question to them is "what did you change?". Stiel, I understand what you are saying, but I have been living with this firmware for months now, and would have heard this distortion before, trust me. It is a very new problem. After some extremely critical listening, I could detect distortion with the eq flat. I then went and took my highest boos(2.2k@4db), used that as my zero point, and eq'd everything -4 db. Seems to work, I cant hear it at all. That doesn't mean I like this solution though. I am reflashing .19 again, and see if I can get it to work this time. I had spoken to Emo some months ago after my failed .19 flash, and the guy told me to reflash .19 on top of it, he said his sub level wasn't hit very hard at all and blamed a bad flash. So, that's my plan right now. |
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jamrock
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Post by jamrock on Apr 29, 2012 10:43:26 GMT -5
Mine starts to distort after about 4dB boost in the EQ, I maxed a frequency out the other day to check if that was what was causing it. It was almost comical how garbled it made it. I have my TV connected to the UMC-1 by optical. I did noticed that I was getting some distortion from certain channels, the louder ones specifically. After reading this thread, I went into the menu to input set up to check the settings and noticed that all my inputs were boosted 9dB. I don't think that I boosted them that high. However, I'm a tweakaholic so it is quite possible (freaking tequila shots). I reduced them all arbitrarily to 3dB, checked the channels and the distortion is gone. Music sounds different when combined with alcohol. I'll remember to check my settings ever so often. Another culprit is Dolby Volume (DV). I find that anytime I find my bass boomy, without question, I had inadvertently hit that DV button and changed something. Thank you all for this rather helpful thread ;D |
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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 29, 2012 10:47:14 GMT -5
Mine starts to distort after about 4dB boost in the EQ, I maxed a frequency out the other day to check if that was what was causing it. It was almost comical how garbled it made it. I have my TV connected to the UMC-1 by optical. I did noticed that I was getting some distortion from certain channels, the louder ones specifically. After reading this thread, I went into the menu to input set up to check the settings and noticed that all my inputs were boosted 9dB. I don't think that I boosted them that high. However, I'm a tweakaholic so it is quite possible (freaking tequila shots). I reduced them all arbitrarily to 3dB, checked the channels and the distortion is gone. Music sounds different when combined with alcohol. I'll remember to check my settings ever so often. Another culprit is Dolby Volume (DV). I find that anytime I find my bass boomy, without question, I had inadvertently hit that DV button and changed something. Thank you all for this rather helpful thread ;D Not a problem, I know all about drunk eq adjustments. The worst ones are when you're drunk and come home from a club that has a fairly decent system in it. I've blown subs before due to that lol. My first thought when I initially heard the distortion was input level, mine are all at 0, so that wasn't it. Even dropping down to -10 didnt change anything, just moved the distortion from up to 18 or so on volume control to a max of 28. |
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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 29, 2012 11:00:09 GMT -5
Oh yeah, almost forgot, it also distorted the same with the digital coax input. So, it's something to do with the d/a converter maybe? Or the d/a conversion in association with the eq? I just don't know enough about this stuff to diagnose it.
All I know is that it doesn't do it when using analog, no matter how high I boost the eq.
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Post by generalkorrd on Apr 29, 2012 12:26:24 GMT -5
Ok, here goes an update.
Flashed to .19. Sub issues are fixed, level is still down compared to previous versions, but not unconquerable... I understand sub level is supposed to be lower anyway.
Distortion is still present, same volume same amount/level of distortion. After playing with the eq, I find that the distortion is centered on the 2.2khz control. 1khz affects it a tiny bit, but with the 2.2khz I can make it disappear or be extremely loud. Input level does not affect the distortion, nor do speaker level adjustments. I am pretty confident that I can eq the distortion out completely simply by dropping all my level by 6 db or so. This is not the solution I want, however I have to do this to be able to listen to it. I will call Emo on monday and see what they say.
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Post by jason1976 on May 1, 2012 7:28:40 GMT -5
Ok, here goes an update. Flashed to .19. Sub issues are fixed, level is still down compared to previous versions, but not unconquerable... I understand sub level is supposed to be lower anyway. Distortion is still present, same volume same amount/level of distortion. After playing with the eq, I find that the distortion is centered on the 2.2khz control. 1khz affects it a tiny bit, but with the 2.2khz I can make it disappear or be extremely loud. Input level does not affect the distortion, nor do speaker level adjustments. I am pretty confident that I can eq the distortion out completely simply by dropping all my level by 6 db or so. This is not the solution I want, however I have to do this to be able to listen to it. I will call Emo on monday and see what they say. Same issue and frequency bands as my problem. Mine never had the issue either until I started upgrading the firmware. It seems like a relatively easy problem to correct. I personally think that the master volume level for digital inputs has gotten boosted too far to provide "better" dynamics. If this level is too hot in the service menu, boosting with the eq further down the sound chain compounds the problem and would explain what we are experiencing. It has been a lesser known issue for quite some time now unfortunately. it is a bigger problem with dynamic tracks that have a high output level. |
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Post by johnr326 on May 2, 2012 18:43:22 GMT -5
After some more investigation, I have found that the eq is the culprit. As obvious as this distortion is, I know I would have heard it before, so I'm wondering why now all of a sudden? Thx jason1976 In my case I added a bunch of acoustic treatments and with my prior EQ settings there was what sounded like distortion. I removed the EQ from the input and that cleaned it up. Probably not what you experienced but maybe for the next guy... |
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Post by cleatus on May 7, 2012 19:47:47 GMT -5
I have had the same thing-- when i put in Rush R30 (a good show off bluray) it distorts like a mofo. I dont know what it is....reflashed...same thing.
i should try it a gain and look at 2.2
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Post by rob80b on Jun 3, 2012 7:57:26 GMT -5
Hi Guys,
New user here, I've also ran into the distortion issue after adjusting (playing with) the EQ just slightly, I'm still acquainting myself with the unit but the distortion became extremely obvious, set all the EQ settings flat, but still the same problem. This was while streaming from the Apple TV2 although I believe I noticed last night while watching Blu-Ray, anyway thought I do a hard reset by unplugging the unit and it has cleared up the problem.
Anyone get to the bottom of the problem yet in another tread, DACs, HDMI or the EMO-Q?
Robert
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Post by rob80b on Jun 3, 2012 22:22:01 GMT -5
More tinkering with the set-up, ok 5.1 sounds very good and I'm still fine tuning everything, but being a new UMC-1 user one's obviously going to try everything. I've adjusted the Center channel's upper and mid frequencies as I'm using some Monitor Audios for the center until I can procure a Dynaudio Center to match the fronts and surrounds, so far so good. But there are still a few bugs, not too sure what I tried but I was able to reproduce the distortion while watching "Resident Evil Afterlife" and unplugged the UMC-1 again to clear things up and then had to do the same with Jethro Tull "Live at Montreux" both playing Direct PCM 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio.
Should note that while trying different audio settings, Direct, Stereo etc I was able reintroduce the distortion at some point, volume levels didn't matter but as noted by some Direct is much louder than the other settings.
Everything is set at zero so I'm not too sure what causes it, if I leave well enough alone and do not adjust anything I can get through a movie with no problems even at healthy volume levels.
May be it's just the the processing/software causing glitches or the DAC may be unstable once changes are introduced?
But overall I'm watching all my movies over again cause when it's working I do not get envious of my Bros Integra 80.1 which he offered me, so when everything is dialed in and I stop fiddling I should be fine.
In the mean time I would still like to be 100% that this may be a common bug with all the units (although many may not have tinkered enough to cause the distortion problem) in which case I can live with it or if there is in fact something wrong with the DAC and may need to be looked at by Emotiva.
Robert
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Post by rob80b on Jun 4, 2012 14:24:36 GMT -5
........ In the mean time I would still like to be 100% that this may be a common bug with all the units (although many may not have tinkered enough to cause the distortion problem) in which case I can live with it or if there is in fact something wrong with the DAC and may need to be looked at by Emotiva. Robert Just to start from scratch as this unit was previously owned I did a re-install of 7.4.19 to have a clean slate, followed the printed instructions and all went smoothly. To start I've only set the distance and levels and stayed away from adjusting the EQ, so far so good, no distortion and also no audio delay FF/RW with Blu-rays or Netflix/ATV2 as of yet. Robert |
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KeithL
Administrator 
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Post by KeithL on Jun 5, 2012 10:16:27 GMT -5
PLEASE READ
In some of the older firmware versions, there were issues with the the DSP signal levels that would cause distortion if the EQ was set such that it increased the overall signal level - which would be the case if several bands were boosted (the output wasn't normalized properly). The short-term solution was to avoid using boost in the EQ and stick to cut (and, if EMoQ boosted some bands, lower all bands by an equal amount until the adjustments were all cuts). This issue has been corrected, and should be gone in v .19 (the current version). IF you re-install an older version of firmware you may re-introduce the problem (and the distortion), so it's not a good idea to do so.
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KeithL
Administrator
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Post by KeithL on Jun 5, 2012 10:21:59 GMT -5
EMoQ and multiple runs.
Note: When you run EMoQ multiple times, you MUST always do a Load Defaults before EACH time you run it. Not only will running EMoQ multiple times one after another not do a better job (EMoQ is not designed to average multiple runs or anything like that), but it can actually sometimes cause odd results, which may include distortion or "odd" results. This happens because "junk data" accumulates in the data buffers; which is why we tell you to clear the UMC between runs.
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