Post by 2infinity on Feb 19, 2010 0:50:24 GMT -5
Greetings Comrades!
Well I thought that I would go ahead and put together a review of the UMC-1 from my perspective. I will add in tidbits of my experience with the XPA-2 & XPA-5. I haven't had the opportunity to review them yet so I will mention a few things here instead of doing an all out review on each.
Prelude
I am relatively new to audiophile grade gear. Outside of a couple of dedicated two channel setups in my younger years (not that I am old now) I have never had a quality setup. I decided about 2yrs ago to get a little more serious about my HT gear. You can see from my signature all of my components. Movies are my family's favorite form of entertainment anymore since we had a child and gave up the bar scene. For reference my previous systems were an old sony (from my undergrad), Onkyo 674 and most recently a Marantz 5002. My speakers are currently all infinity beta series, my sub is Velodyne. I found Emotiva thanks to the article in CNET and started drooling at their price/performance specs. I bought an XPA-5 in July along with the Marantz for its pre/outs. I later bought an XPA-2 off a forum member.
I have to say, that I was impressed with the Marantz' overall sound quality for DAC. I thought it was a bit harsh at louder volumes and seemed to really drive the XPA-2 really hard. I had heard that the status indicators for many of you here on the forum would barely move relative to SPL. However, for some reason when hooked up to the Marantz, the status lights would go nuts given the volume level. Why I mention this will be clear later. Needless to say I was never disappointed with the Marantz/XPA combos especially with 2ch listening and high res audio.
The Hookup: Holla if You Hear Me
So I have had my UMC-1 since Monday of this week but I had to finish up some teaching related work and dissertation related things before I could carve out any time to try this puppy out. Needless to say, it damn near killed me letting it sit for a week. So fast forward to Thursday.
I pulled the UMC-1 out of its box. Much has been said about the fit and finish of the UMC-1 and Emo Products in general so I won't be redundant. Needless to say it is beautiful and very well made. My only gripes are the lackluster remote (A non-issue for me) and the volume knob. The remote felt flimsy but since I use a Harmony it will just stay in the box. The volume knob works great and looks good but felt a little out of place with the milled aluminum front (e.g. plastic feel). Again its not even a big deal I will probably never touch the thing.
So I pulled the Marantz out of the rack, labeled all of my connections along the way. I pulled the UMC-1 up and had the connections made in no time! Time to power on. Man this is one sexy looking pre/pro. Even my wife commented on how beautiful it was!
Initial Setup
I didn't have time to try EmoQ or much in the way of Manual settings so I will edit the post later when I have the chance. Of course based on the collective wisdom in the lounge I easily adjusted the Input names, settings, trigger inputs, etc. One thing that surprised me very quickly was the UMC's ability to pass through HDMI audio to my Plasma. I know this sounds minor, but when you have a kid who is taking a nap, sometimes you just want to watch Monk using the TV speakers. I did the distance settings and set the cross overs manually based on prior experience.
Early Observations: Music
I stream my music using iTunes from a HTPC. I have both lossless and non-lossless tunes here.
I threw on some Corinne Bailey Ray, "Till It Happens to You" I love this song as it is not overly produced. The first thing I noticed was how laid back the umc's 2ch sound was compared to anything I have owned prior. The vocals were smooth and soulful in a way that I have never heard before. Although I have heard the vinyl effect they put on this song to make it sound older, I never really noticed it as prominently as I had now. I kept waiting for any sign of harshness. . .none came. It is funny because I obviously had the volume up quite loud but never once found it grainy or unpleasant. It was quite simply the best 2ch experience I have heard in a great many years and honestly better than much I have heard at friends homes, who have much more expensive 2ch rigs.
Initial HD Audio Impressions
So I knew I didn't have much time left before the kiddo had to go to bed so I plopped in HP&HBP on BluRay. I have to admit it took me a few minutes to get the TrueHD sound track to play correctly b/c I spaced and forgot that I was sending it via PCM due to the Marantz' lack of High Rez Audio. I quickly corrected this and was off to the races. I watched a few scenes and all I can say is WOW!!! If you have seen the movie, you will know the scene when Harry and Dumbledore are visiting Slughorn and they have to fix a trashed home. The scene involves a lot of moving effects. The UMC performed as promised giving me crystal clear surround effects, great vocals and enveloping sound! Kudos to the Emo crew on this one! Again I will make note of the fact that, at least for my mains, the XPA-2 indicators never budged. This was regardless of the fact that I turned it up to 40 at a few moments.
Initial Conclusion
The UMC-1 has delivered all that I expected and more. I really have not played with the video processing (I used pass through). I haven't even calibrated the speaker levels yet! All I can say is AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!! This is what I was waiting for! If anyone is on the fence about this product, jump on it when your number comes up! I will add more as I have time to do a more thorough review.
I grade a lot of papers and exams each semester so here is my grade for the UMC-1.
Student: UMC-1
Assignment: Initial Impressions
Grade: A
Good Work Emo!
Cheers
Chris
Well I thought that I would go ahead and put together a review of the UMC-1 from my perspective. I will add in tidbits of my experience with the XPA-2 & XPA-5. I haven't had the opportunity to review them yet so I will mention a few things here instead of doing an all out review on each.
Prelude
I am relatively new to audiophile grade gear. Outside of a couple of dedicated two channel setups in my younger years (not that I am old now) I have never had a quality setup. I decided about 2yrs ago to get a little more serious about my HT gear. You can see from my signature all of my components. Movies are my family's favorite form of entertainment anymore since we had a child and gave up the bar scene. For reference my previous systems were an old sony (from my undergrad), Onkyo 674 and most recently a Marantz 5002. My speakers are currently all infinity beta series, my sub is Velodyne. I found Emotiva thanks to the article in CNET and started drooling at their price/performance specs. I bought an XPA-5 in July along with the Marantz for its pre/outs. I later bought an XPA-2 off a forum member.
I have to say, that I was impressed with the Marantz' overall sound quality for DAC. I thought it was a bit harsh at louder volumes and seemed to really drive the XPA-2 really hard. I had heard that the status indicators for many of you here on the forum would barely move relative to SPL. However, for some reason when hooked up to the Marantz, the status lights would go nuts given the volume level. Why I mention this will be clear later. Needless to say I was never disappointed with the Marantz/XPA combos especially with 2ch listening and high res audio.
The Hookup: Holla if You Hear Me
So I have had my UMC-1 since Monday of this week but I had to finish up some teaching related work and dissertation related things before I could carve out any time to try this puppy out. Needless to say, it damn near killed me letting it sit for a week. So fast forward to Thursday.
I pulled the UMC-1 out of its box. Much has been said about the fit and finish of the UMC-1 and Emo Products in general so I won't be redundant. Needless to say it is beautiful and very well made. My only gripes are the lackluster remote (A non-issue for me) and the volume knob. The remote felt flimsy but since I use a Harmony it will just stay in the box. The volume knob works great and looks good but felt a little out of place with the milled aluminum front (e.g. plastic feel). Again its not even a big deal I will probably never touch the thing.
So I pulled the Marantz out of the rack, labeled all of my connections along the way. I pulled the UMC-1 up and had the connections made in no time! Time to power on. Man this is one sexy looking pre/pro. Even my wife commented on how beautiful it was!
Initial Setup
I didn't have time to try EmoQ or much in the way of Manual settings so I will edit the post later when I have the chance. Of course based on the collective wisdom in the lounge I easily adjusted the Input names, settings, trigger inputs, etc. One thing that surprised me very quickly was the UMC's ability to pass through HDMI audio to my Plasma. I know this sounds minor, but when you have a kid who is taking a nap, sometimes you just want to watch Monk using the TV speakers. I did the distance settings and set the cross overs manually based on prior experience.
Early Observations: Music
I stream my music using iTunes from a HTPC. I have both lossless and non-lossless tunes here.
I threw on some Corinne Bailey Ray, "Till It Happens to You" I love this song as it is not overly produced. The first thing I noticed was how laid back the umc's 2ch sound was compared to anything I have owned prior. The vocals were smooth and soulful in a way that I have never heard before. Although I have heard the vinyl effect they put on this song to make it sound older, I never really noticed it as prominently as I had now. I kept waiting for any sign of harshness. . .none came. It is funny because I obviously had the volume up quite loud but never once found it grainy or unpleasant. It was quite simply the best 2ch experience I have heard in a great many years and honestly better than much I have heard at friends homes, who have much more expensive 2ch rigs.
Initial HD Audio Impressions
So I knew I didn't have much time left before the kiddo had to go to bed so I plopped in HP&HBP on BluRay. I have to admit it took me a few minutes to get the TrueHD sound track to play correctly b/c I spaced and forgot that I was sending it via PCM due to the Marantz' lack of High Rez Audio. I quickly corrected this and was off to the races. I watched a few scenes and all I can say is WOW!!! If you have seen the movie, you will know the scene when Harry and Dumbledore are visiting Slughorn and they have to fix a trashed home. The scene involves a lot of moving effects. The UMC performed as promised giving me crystal clear surround effects, great vocals and enveloping sound! Kudos to the Emo crew on this one! Again I will make note of the fact that, at least for my mains, the XPA-2 indicators never budged. This was regardless of the fact that I turned it up to 40 at a few moments.
Initial Conclusion
The UMC-1 has delivered all that I expected and more. I really have not played with the video processing (I used pass through). I haven't even calibrated the speaker levels yet! All I can say is AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!! This is what I was waiting for! If anyone is on the fence about this product, jump on it when your number comes up! I will add more as I have time to do a more thorough review.
I grade a lot of papers and exams each semester so here is my grade for the UMC-1.
Student: UMC-1
Assignment: Initial Impressions
Grade: A
Good Work Emo!
Cheers
Chris
