Post by dsnyder0cnn on Jun 2, 2010 13:50:04 GMT -5
Hello,
My UMC-1 arrived a week ago today, so I thought I'd add my first impressions to the list here. It displaces a B&K Reference 31 (which itself displaced a McCormack Line Drive TLC-1 passive preamp as part of our initial migration to audio for home theater).
Context
For system context, the FL/FR amp is a McCormack Power Drive DNA-1, and an Outlaw Audio Model 755 powers the C/SL/SR/BL/BR. Loudspeakers are all Legacy Audio, including ten year old FOCUS at the front (hoping to update to FOCUS SE sometime this year!), matching SilverScreen III for the center, MiST's for surrounds/backs, and Point One sub. A Sanyo PLV-z700 projects onto a 100" Carada screen. Sources include a Denon DVD-2930CI, Panasonic DMP-BD80, and Xbox 360. The room is 21 feet deep and 19 feet wide with the listening position about 1/3rd of the way in from the back wall. My priorities are mostly listening to two channel music, but my family and I also enjoy watching movies and try to do so together at least a couple of times a month.
Setup
Setup was easy, as most here have said. One thing that took a couple of minutes to wrap my head around was the fact that input setup is done on one screen while assigning names is done on another. Don't over think this second level of abstraction; had Emotiva made assigning a name just another field in the setup for each input, the results would have been the same. The tri-color selection took another minute to sort out. "Yellow" is the active item, "Blue" are non-active items, and "Orange" is what the cursor is sitting on regardless of its active state. I kind-of hated having to manually disable visibility for all sixteen pre-configured inputs, but I'm sure that having them all on by default saves Emotiva long distance charges on support calls, so I understand why "visible" is the default...and I'm grateful to them for apparently passing that cost savings along to their customers. :-)
I did run through EMO-Q a few times, and there were a few surprises. One was that the fronts, center, and sub were reported as being reversed in polarity while the surrounds and backs were ok. I'm not sure if it means that the UMC-1 will correct for these reverses or if I need to do that myself. Depending on frequency, I would think that phase adjustments to account for distances between listening position and speakers would take care of this, but I'm not sure. I've verified that the connections are correct regarding +/- terminals, but phase can become inverted at a number of places in the audio chain, especially when using large multi-way loudspeakers. As long as things are consistent from left to right, I'm not worried.
The other surprise was that the distance reported from one run to the next seemed to vary by two or three feet. This was initially disconcerting, but as I recall, the difference in distance between the loudspeakers seemed to remain consistent (with the sub as a possible exception), so phase correction should work roughly as expected. For example, my FR, C, and FL are all the same distance from the listening position, and that's what EMO-Q reported each time...even though the actual distance reported for these three varied by a few feet between runs. Make sense? Just to be sure, I eventually measured with a tape measure and set the distances manually, but would have been fine either way.
The EQ curves for all of the loudspeakers except for the sub were essentially flat, +/- 1 or 2 clicks (not sure what the unit is), which I guess is a good thing. The EQ curve for the sub was rather nuts though...deep bass was pulled way down, and bass above 120 Hz was punched way up. That didn't make much sense to me, so I mostly flattened that out manually, leaving a few DB of cut in the lowest two bands.
I'll echo what others have said about the input setup system. The flexibility is excellent.
Listening
Again, my priority is sound. Like most have reported here, the UMC-1 is quiet. I mean dead quiet. Music emerges from a dark background In this aspect the UMC-1 is very different from the B&K Reference 31, which has always been rather noisy, especially when used with high efficiency loudspeakers and an amp with higher than average gain.
Through the analog inputs in "Direct" mode, highs were initially slightly bright and the bass was a little muddy. After a few days of burn in, detail in the bass has recovered and the highs sound much better. The stereo image is as deep and wide as I remember on the B&K, and individual instruments are easy to pick out in the mix. However, I don't recommend using the analog inputs in "Stereo" mode. This seems to invoke the A-to-D converter, which only samples at 48 kHz in the UMC-1. On the B&K, this was done at 96 kHz, which produces a much smoother response curve. I mention this because "Direct" mode is not the default setting for analog inputs, so you may want to update your configuration (under "Setup/Advanced Playback") if you have full-range front speakers or otherwise don't require bass management to be provided by the UMC-1. Even if you do, you'll be better off using the S/PDIF or HDMI source connection at least for digital sources if you must use "Stereo" mode.
Sadly, the DAC in the UMC-1 does not sound as good as the one in the Denon DVD-2930CI, at least when feeding it digital audio via an HDMI connection (I have not tried the S/PDIF, but may give that a go to see if there's any improvement). I loose "air" around the individual performers in the mix and the soundstage flattens out significantly. Highs have a harsher edge to them. As a stereo music DAC, the UMC-1 just does not sound as refined as the much more expensive but also much older B&K Reference 31. Expecting anything different is probably not realistic at this price point, so my plan is to eventually add a Benchmark DAC1 HDR to the system for stereo music listening from digital sources. The FL/FR outs from the UMC-1 will run through the analog inputs on the Benchmark, which will be directly connected to the FL/FR power amp. For movie playback, the family will have to remember to power up the Benchmark and set the volume to twelve o'clock, but otherwise, integration is pretty simple. As an added advantage, if I replace the McCormack DNA-1 with a par of Emotiva XPA-1's, I'll have a fully balanced connection between the preamp and the front amps.
Watching
The movie playback experience, both legacy DVD and blu-ray, through the UMC-1 is marvelous. The DAC for DTS is particularly excellent. I've never heard such a clear difference between the Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks on standard DVDs before. "The Mask" in standard DVD is a good example. Avatar in blu-ray looks and sounds great on just about any system, but it was stunning through the UMC-1. There is no loss in video quality from 1080p sources that I could tell using the default settings. Integration between the sub and the rest of the loudspeakers is excellent. Dialog is clear and easy to track even when it moves across the scene from left to center to right and beyond. I have been so impressed that I've been digging up old DVDs just to re-watch them via the UMC-1. It has really been a lot of fun.
Reliability
I have not noticed any lost audio (for more than a few seconds anyway) when switching inputs, but I guess I don't do that often. The UMC-1 has only required a hard power-cycle to restore responsiveness twice so far. Once was during a second pass at EMO-Q and the second was right after powering on the projector when it seemed to lock up while detecting the HDMI settings and resolution. It tends to run rather warm, but not significantly warmer than the old B&K Reference 31, so I expect it to outlast its five year warranty period.
Conclusion
Time will tell, but so far, for my purposes the UMC-1 has been an excellent "upgrade" from the B&K in every area except for its stereo music DAC, which I had planned to address via an external DAC anyway. The analog preamp in the UMC-1 is so good that I could probably go with the Benchmark DAC1 USB and save $500 over the HDR, but being able to (eventually) drive front monoblock amps through balanced outputs and having a nice motorized ALPS potentiometer make the HDR worth the extra spend for me. And with the money that I saved by buying the UMC-1 vs. any comparable alternative, I can afford it! I hope this has been helpful.
-- David
My UMC-1 arrived a week ago today, so I thought I'd add my first impressions to the list here. It displaces a B&K Reference 31 (which itself displaced a McCormack Line Drive TLC-1 passive preamp as part of our initial migration to audio for home theater).
Context
For system context, the FL/FR amp is a McCormack Power Drive DNA-1, and an Outlaw Audio Model 755 powers the C/SL/SR/BL/BR. Loudspeakers are all Legacy Audio, including ten year old FOCUS at the front (hoping to update to FOCUS SE sometime this year!), matching SilverScreen III for the center, MiST's for surrounds/backs, and Point One sub. A Sanyo PLV-z700 projects onto a 100" Carada screen. Sources include a Denon DVD-2930CI, Panasonic DMP-BD80, and Xbox 360. The room is 21 feet deep and 19 feet wide with the listening position about 1/3rd of the way in from the back wall. My priorities are mostly listening to two channel music, but my family and I also enjoy watching movies and try to do so together at least a couple of times a month.
Setup
Setup was easy, as most here have said. One thing that took a couple of minutes to wrap my head around was the fact that input setup is done on one screen while assigning names is done on another. Don't over think this second level of abstraction; had Emotiva made assigning a name just another field in the setup for each input, the results would have been the same. The tri-color selection took another minute to sort out. "Yellow" is the active item, "Blue" are non-active items, and "Orange" is what the cursor is sitting on regardless of its active state. I kind-of hated having to manually disable visibility for all sixteen pre-configured inputs, but I'm sure that having them all on by default saves Emotiva long distance charges on support calls, so I understand why "visible" is the default...and I'm grateful to them for apparently passing that cost savings along to their customers. :-)
I did run through EMO-Q a few times, and there were a few surprises. One was that the fronts, center, and sub were reported as being reversed in polarity while the surrounds and backs were ok. I'm not sure if it means that the UMC-1 will correct for these reverses or if I need to do that myself. Depending on frequency, I would think that phase adjustments to account for distances between listening position and speakers would take care of this, but I'm not sure. I've verified that the connections are correct regarding +/- terminals, but phase can become inverted at a number of places in the audio chain, especially when using large multi-way loudspeakers. As long as things are consistent from left to right, I'm not worried.
The other surprise was that the distance reported from one run to the next seemed to vary by two or three feet. This was initially disconcerting, but as I recall, the difference in distance between the loudspeakers seemed to remain consistent (with the sub as a possible exception), so phase correction should work roughly as expected. For example, my FR, C, and FL are all the same distance from the listening position, and that's what EMO-Q reported each time...even though the actual distance reported for these three varied by a few feet between runs. Make sense? Just to be sure, I eventually measured with a tape measure and set the distances manually, but would have been fine either way.
The EQ curves for all of the loudspeakers except for the sub were essentially flat, +/- 1 or 2 clicks (not sure what the unit is), which I guess is a good thing. The EQ curve for the sub was rather nuts though...deep bass was pulled way down, and bass above 120 Hz was punched way up. That didn't make much sense to me, so I mostly flattened that out manually, leaving a few DB of cut in the lowest two bands.
I'll echo what others have said about the input setup system. The flexibility is excellent.
Listening
Again, my priority is sound. Like most have reported here, the UMC-1 is quiet. I mean dead quiet. Music emerges from a dark background In this aspect the UMC-1 is very different from the B&K Reference 31, which has always been rather noisy, especially when used with high efficiency loudspeakers and an amp with higher than average gain.
Through the analog inputs in "Direct" mode, highs were initially slightly bright and the bass was a little muddy. After a few days of burn in, detail in the bass has recovered and the highs sound much better. The stereo image is as deep and wide as I remember on the B&K, and individual instruments are easy to pick out in the mix. However, I don't recommend using the analog inputs in "Stereo" mode. This seems to invoke the A-to-D converter, which only samples at 48 kHz in the UMC-1. On the B&K, this was done at 96 kHz, which produces a much smoother response curve. I mention this because "Direct" mode is not the default setting for analog inputs, so you may want to update your configuration (under "Setup/Advanced Playback") if you have full-range front speakers or otherwise don't require bass management to be provided by the UMC-1. Even if you do, you'll be better off using the S/PDIF or HDMI source connection at least for digital sources if you must use "Stereo" mode.
Sadly, the DAC in the UMC-1 does not sound as good as the one in the Denon DVD-2930CI, at least when feeding it digital audio via an HDMI connection (I have not tried the S/PDIF, but may give that a go to see if there's any improvement). I loose "air" around the individual performers in the mix and the soundstage flattens out significantly. Highs have a harsher edge to them. As a stereo music DAC, the UMC-1 just does not sound as refined as the much more expensive but also much older B&K Reference 31. Expecting anything different is probably not realistic at this price point, so my plan is to eventually add a Benchmark DAC1 HDR to the system for stereo music listening from digital sources. The FL/FR outs from the UMC-1 will run through the analog inputs on the Benchmark, which will be directly connected to the FL/FR power amp. For movie playback, the family will have to remember to power up the Benchmark and set the volume to twelve o'clock, but otherwise, integration is pretty simple. As an added advantage, if I replace the McCormack DNA-1 with a par of Emotiva XPA-1's, I'll have a fully balanced connection between the preamp and the front amps.
Watching
The movie playback experience, both legacy DVD and blu-ray, through the UMC-1 is marvelous. The DAC for DTS is particularly excellent. I've never heard such a clear difference between the Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks on standard DVDs before. "The Mask" in standard DVD is a good example. Avatar in blu-ray looks and sounds great on just about any system, but it was stunning through the UMC-1. There is no loss in video quality from 1080p sources that I could tell using the default settings. Integration between the sub and the rest of the loudspeakers is excellent. Dialog is clear and easy to track even when it moves across the scene from left to center to right and beyond. I have been so impressed that I've been digging up old DVDs just to re-watch them via the UMC-1. It has really been a lot of fun.
Reliability
I have not noticed any lost audio (for more than a few seconds anyway) when switching inputs, but I guess I don't do that often. The UMC-1 has only required a hard power-cycle to restore responsiveness twice so far. Once was during a second pass at EMO-Q and the second was right after powering on the projector when it seemed to lock up while detecting the HDMI settings and resolution. It tends to run rather warm, but not significantly warmer than the old B&K Reference 31, so I expect it to outlast its five year warranty period.
Conclusion
Time will tell, but so far, for my purposes the UMC-1 has been an excellent "upgrade" from the B&K in every area except for its stereo music DAC, which I had planned to address via an external DAC anyway. The analog preamp in the UMC-1 is so good that I could probably go with the Benchmark DAC1 USB and save $500 over the HDR, but being able to (eventually) drive front monoblock amps through balanced outputs and having a nice motorized ALPS potentiometer make the HDR worth the extra spend for me. And with the money that I saved by buying the UMC-1 vs. any comparable alternative, I can afford it! I hope this has been helpful.
-- David
