klinemj
Emo VIPs
Honorary Emofest Scribe
Posts: 14,762
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Post by klinemj on Jun 27, 2019 7:24:37 GMT -5
I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm more keen about getting a fully functional and bug-free XMC-2, than i am on the date of its availability at this time. My XMC-1 has been working smoothly like butter for several years now without missing a step, and I love the stability and peace of mind that brings, even if the unit is old now and lacks some latest and greatest features. I wouldn't want to swap that for another unit that will have me calling Emotiva almost every other day. Of course I am all for the upgrade, but the most pressing question for me at the moment is about when all the bugs reported on the RMC-1 thread will be worked out. I wish someone would tell me when that would happen, because I would like to bring out a few champagne glasses when that day finally arrives. Exactly my situation. I'm happy to wait...providing the trade-in program stays open. Mark
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Post by rbk123 on Jun 27, 2019 8:05:32 GMT -5
I'm probably in the minority here, Exactly my situation. I'm happy to wait...providing the trade-in program stays open. Count me in this group. Plus I am waiting to hear how it sounds compared to the XMC-1, with non-Atmos material that is. I imagine 2 channel will be extremely close, but movies I have bigger expectations with the newer processing chips.
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Post by foggy1956 on Jun 27, 2019 15:33:24 GMT -5
My biggest interest will be to see how Dirac shakes out
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Post by goozoo on Jun 27, 2019 16:00:30 GMT -5
Exactly my situation. I'm happy to wait...providing the trade-in program stays open. Count me in this group. Plus I am waiting to hear how it sounds compared to the XMC-1, with non-Atmos material that is. I imagine 2 channel will be extremely close, but movies I have bigger expectations with the newer processing chips. As a current RMC-1 owner and former XMC-1 owner/ lover, I much prefer the sound of the XMC-1 over the RMC-1 for movies. as the Burr Brown DACs we more laid back sounding. The current DACs in the RMC-1 lack the natural timbre for human voices. I am not certain as to whether or not this is due to how the RMC-1 was voiced or the DACs used, but when watching movies that I am very familiar with, it clearly is not better and in most cases worse (to my ears). Keep in mind that my XMC-1 was manually calibrated via external DSP and no DIRAC, so all I did was essentially swap processors. Of course all of this is highly subjective and YMMV.
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Post by foggy1956 on Jun 27, 2019 16:20:54 GMT -5
Count me in this group. Plus I am waiting to hear how it sounds compared to the XMC-1, with non-Atmos material that is. I imagine 2 channel will be extremely close, but movies I have bigger expectations with the newer processing chips. As a current RMC-1 owner and former XMC-1 owner/ lover, I much prefer the sound of the XMC-1 over the RMC-1 for movies. as the Burr Brown DACs we more laid back sounding. The current DACs in the RMC-1 lack the natural timbre for human voices. I am not certain as to whether or not this is due to how the RMC-1 was voiced or the DACs used, but when watching movies that I am very familiar with, it clearly is not better and in most cases worse (to my ears). Keep in mind that my XMC-1 was manually calibrated via external DSP and no DIRAC, so all I did was essentially swap processors. Of course all of this is highly subjective and YMMV. What is your opinion on sound quality for 2 channel between the 2?
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Post by goozoo on Jun 27, 2019 16:57:34 GMT -5
I always listened in reference stereo when I had the XMC-1 but the RMC has had so many issues in my system that I haven’t even bothered to do any critical 2 channel listening. I’m just happy if I can get through an entire movie without problems.
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Post by jjkessler on Jun 27, 2019 19:04:38 GMT -5
I have been going back and fourth on trading for XMC-2 versus RMC-1L. I’m currently leaning towards the XMC-2 and using the price difference to buy an XPA-DR3 to go with my 8 XPA-1Ls. It’s such a hard choice as I also jump back in the RMC-1L wagon with the deep trade in allowance. Leaning slightly more towards the XMC-2 but, not by much for my typical hone theater use
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Post by rbk123 on Jun 27, 2019 20:56:36 GMT -5
As a current RMC-1 owner and former XMC-1 owner/ lover, I much prefer the sound of the XMC-1 over the RMC-1 for movies. as the Burr Brown DACs we more laid back sounding. The current DACs in the RMC-1 lack the natural timbre for human voices. I am not certain as to whether or not this is due to how the RMC-1 was voiced or the DACs used, but when watching movies that I am very familiar with, it clearly is not better and in most cases worse (to my ears). Keep in mind that my XMC-1 was manually calibrated via external DSP and no DIRAC, so all I did was essentially swap processors. Of course all of this is highly subjective and YMMV. Good info, thanks, and certainly very interesting. How about surround processing - can you tell a difference in TrueHD or DTS-HD? Obviously Atmos is an apples to oranges, so ignore that.
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Post by goozoo on Jun 28, 2019 2:14:49 GMT -5
Overall regardless of the processing used, the sound is very different than the XMC-1. That being said, I think this is pretty much what is coming out of China and their chipsets so I don’t believe that the other similarly priced competitors will sound much different.
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Post by repeetavx on Jun 28, 2019 2:52:04 GMT -5
As a current RMC-1 owner and former XMC-1 owner/ lover, I much prefer the sound of the XMC-1 over the RMC-1 for movies. as the Burr Brown DACs we more laid back sounding. The current DACs in the RMC-1 lack the natural timbre for human voices. I am not certain as to whether or not this is due to how the RMC-1 was voiced or the DACs used, but when watching movies that I am very familiar with, it clearly is not better and in most cases worse (to my ears). Keep in mind that my XMC-1 was manually calibrated via external DSP and no DIRAC, so all I did was essentially swap processors. Of course all of this is highly subjective and YMMV.
Wow. I voted a couple of weeks ago that I was going to keep my XMC-1. For the last couple of days I've been considering changing my mind and maybe upgrading to the XMC-2. I've always like the sound of Burr Brown DACs. I wonder if I were to do the upgrade, would there be a window where I could try out the -2 and if I didn't like it, I could ask for my -1 back.
Until there is a consensus, I'm not doing anything. Meanwhile, I'm going to be enjoying the best sounding Pre/Pro I've ever heard.
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Post by Bonzo on Jun 28, 2019 7:24:27 GMT -5
I personally would be VERY leery of switching without waiting a long while to make sure the XMC-2 isn't a hot mess.
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Post by davidl81 on Jun 28, 2019 8:15:30 GMT -5
I personally would be VERY leery of switching without waiting a long while to make sure the XMC-2 isn't a hot mess. It will be in excatly the same shape as the RMC-1, since for all intents and pourposes they are the same inside. If that’s good or bad will depend, but I don’t think the XMC-2 will be as bad from the start that the RMC-1 was at launch.
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Post by Bonzo on Jun 28, 2019 9:26:37 GMT -5
I personally would be VERY leery of switching without waiting a long while to make sure the XMC-2 isn't a hot mess. It will be in excatly the same shape as the RMC-1, since for all intents and pourposes they are the same inside. If that’s good or bad will depend, but I don’t think the XMC-2 will be as bad from the start that the RMC-1 was at launch. The RMC-1L will be nearly identical to the RMC-1. While the XMC-2 will share much in common, it won't be "same". Those changes may affect things. Time will tell. But there have been MANY occasions here where Emotiva has chimed in after that fact saying something to the jist of "our intent was to do that, but once we got into it we had to do this instead, which in turn made us have to change this other thing." We also have at least 1 person here who doesn't like the sound of the RMC-1 as well as the XMC-1. So its possible that there may be people not liking their new XMC-2 as well as their XMC-1. It happens. There are people who prefer the older Marantz 8802a over the newer 8805.
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KeithL
Administrator
Posts: 9,961
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Post by KeithL on Jun 28, 2019 9:34:26 GMT -5
All of the new processors, including the XMC-2, the RMC-1, and the RMC-1L, use AKM AK4490 DACs. The XMC-1 used Analog Devices AD1955 DACs. While both sound very neutral, they do sound a tiny bit different. We think the AD1955 sounds very good, but we think the AK4490's sound a tiny bit better (but YMMV) .
It will be in excatly the same shape as the RMC-1, since for all intents and pourposes they are the same inside. If that’s good or bad will depend, but I don’t think the XMC-2 will be as bad from the start that the RMC-1 was at launch. The RMC-1L will be nearly identical to the RMC-1. While the XMC-2 will share much in common, it won't be "same". Those changes may affect things. Time will tell. But there have been MANY occasions here where Emotiva has chimed in after that fact saying something to the jist of "our intent was to do that, but once we got into it we had to do this instead, which in turn made us have to change this other thing." We also have at least 1 person here who doesn't like the sound of the RMC-1 as well as the XMC-1. So its possible that there may be people not liking their new XMC-2 as well as their XMC-1. It happens. There are people who prefer the older Marantz 8802a over the newer 8805.
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Post by doc1963 on Jun 28, 2019 9:45:44 GMT -5
All of the new processors, including the XMC-2, the RMC-1, and the RMC-1L, use AKM AK4490 DACs. The XMC-1 used Analog Devices AD1955 DACs. While both sound very neutral, they do sound a tiny bit different. We think the AD1955 sounds very good, but we think the AK4490's sound a tiny bit better (but YMMV) . Actually, I'm pretty sure the XMC-1 uses Burr Brown DSD1796 DACs...
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Post by Bonzo on Jun 28, 2019 9:50:01 GMT -5
All of the new processors, including the XMC-2, the RMC-1, and the RMC-1L, use AKM AK4490 DACs. The XMC-1 used Analog Devices AD1955 DACs. While both sound very neutral, they do sound a tiny bit different. We think the AD1955 sounds very good, but we think the AK4490's sound a tiny bit better (but YMMV) . The RMC-1L will be nearly identical to the RMC-1. While the XMC-2 will share much in common, it won't be "same". Those changes may affect things. Time will tell. But there have been MANY occasions here where Emotiva has chimed in after that fact saying something to the jist of "our intent was to do that, but once we got into it we had to do this instead, which in turn made us have to change this other thing." We also have at least 1 person here who doesn't like the sound of the RMC-1 as well as the XMC-1. So its possible that there may be people not liking their new XMC-2 as well as their XMC-1. It happens. There are people who prefer the older Marantz 8802a over the newer 8805. When it comes to what sounds better, that's a big personal preference, as we all know. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many options to choose from. I'm just saying that it's certainly possible someone "could" trade in their XMC-1 and not like the sound of their XMC-2 as well. Like say the Oppo 105 vs the 205. Many people don't like the new sound as well, even though on paper (tests) it is technically superior. I'll bet the people at Oppo think the 205 sounds better, but many would disagree.
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Post by rbk123 on Jun 28, 2019 10:23:34 GMT -5
All of the new processors, including the XMC-2, the RMC-1, and the RMC-1L, use AKM AK4490 DACs. The XMC-1 used Analog Devices AD1955 DACs. While both sound very neutral, they do sound a tiny bit different. We think the AD1955 sounds very good, but we think the AK4490's sound a tiny bit better (but YMMV) . Actually, I'm pretty sure the XMC-1 uses Burr Brown DSD1796 DACs... Ouch.
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Post by doc1963 on Jun 28, 2019 10:35:55 GMT -5
Actually, I'm pretty sure the XMC-1 uses Burr Brown DSD1796 DACs... Ouch. No biggie... Emotiva "is" quite fond of the AD1955 and has used them quite often across many different products, but I believe the XMC-1 was a total TI (Burr Brown) package (DSPs, ADC & DACs)...
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Post by millst on Jun 28, 2019 11:03:00 GMT -5
Yeah, he was probably thinking of the XDA-1, not XMC-1.
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Post by rbk123 on Jun 28, 2019 11:15:03 GMT -5
No biggie... Emotiva "is" quite fond of the AD1955 and has used them quite often across many different products, but I believe the XMC-1 was a total TI (Burr Brown) package (DSPs, ADC & DACs)... I was more referring to Emo's lead tech guru being corrected on a product's tech info... But we're all human after all, and Millst is probably right.
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