New RMC-1L ImpressionsUpdated 2/16/2021It's been a while since I've posted here, but I received my RMC-1L on Friday, and I've been playing around with some of the things I could not get a good answer on before ordering. I wanted to share my thoughts and review.
TL;DR:Qualities:
* I don't really think you can beat the sound quality, build, and features for the price. The Marantz 8805 seems comparable, but is subjectively a notch down in sound and design.
* Well thought out, with lots of cool, geeky options to play around with.
Issues:
* CEC Volume is implemented worse than most modern consumer AVRs. The processor inconsistently captures volume commands from my AppleTV. I gave up on CEC Volume for now, but the other CEC features (on/off, source switching) seem to work well.
* ARC can cause the processor to freeze and require a power cycle, especially in combination with CEC Volume it seems.
* There is audible popping when the processor changes input formats. It's nothing deal breaking, but it doesn't sound good.
* It seems like it takes 2-4 seconds for sound to come on sometimes, after switching formats. For example, right after starting a movie.
Wish List:
* Improve CEC, specifically the handling of volume.
* Support an API interface for processor control via the network. I'd love to build some Siri commands for controlling the processor
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First off, my system:B&W 804 D3 mains
B&W DB2D sub
B&W HTM72 S2 center
B&W 707 S2 surrounds
XPA-DR2 for mains
Samsung Q90R TV
Previously I used two different electronic stacks for different purposes:XSP-1 Gen 2 preamp + ERC-4 (as DAC) for 2-channel music
Marantz NR1510 receiver for home theater (running DR-2 on the main pre-outs)
I use my AppleTV for 95% of my home theater and listening, although I've been playing around with some other DACs for high resolution audio.
Considerations for selecting the RMC-1L:I heavily researched the RMC-1L primarily compared to the Marantz 8805, but also looked at the McIntosh MX100. Honestly, I'm in an apartment and don't need the billions of channels any of these processors offers. I wish I could get something like a 7.1 processor with all top-notch audio components, but alas it seems like most of the options are either high quality with too many channels, or low quality with the right number. The RMC-1L got closest to what I was looking for with balanced DACs on all channels I use, relatively svelte form factor, and good looks with those large OLED screens.
The other factor for me that isn't talked about much with the RMC-1/L... CEC. In a home theater processor I want ease of use, and that means just having 1 AppleTV remote for most of my daily usage. I also really like being able to control my system from my iPhone, Apple Watch, or my Home Pods. It's not uncommon for me to tell my system to turn the volume up/down from another room, or tell my HomePod to turn my system off when I'm in bed. This one was a wildcard for me. My dad had a UMC-200 in the past and it was useless for CEC. I read some comments in these forums about problems with CEC in older firmware versions, although I also read Lonnie say that it's supported. I know that CEC seems to have a bad rap on this board, but I will tell you this... on the Martanz it is bulletproof. CEC, ARC, fast switching between ARC and direct input - it works without issue 99.99% of the time.
I was also really hoping for eARC, but that was only supported on the McIntosh so far. I'm hopeful the RMC-1 will have an upgrade board for HDMI 2.1 with eARC and 8K someday.
I was also planning to keep a separate stereo stack, so having the Reference Stereo analog path was important for me. I do wish the Reference Stereo mode also had a sub output - my sub has it's own crossover and I would like to use it on the analog path.
Setup:First impression, wow that startup time is slow. However, waking from standby mode is lightning fast, so that's not much of an issue. Next thing, I picked up an A-500 for center/surround amp duties, only to come to the realization that the RMC-1L has no RCA pre-outs, and the A-500 has no XLR inputs. I was dead in the water on 5.1 until the next day. Fortunately Fry's had a handful of XLR->RCA cables in stock. I feel like if Emotiva is going to slim their processors down to XLR only (which I'm a huge fan of), then all of their amps should support XLR. In the meantime, I started working on the 2.1 setup. I spent about an hour banging my head on the wall trying to figure out how to get the sub to work with both LFE and stereo. I finally figured out to use mono mode as the center sub. I really love the flexibility the RMC-1 gives with sub configurations, but I wish the UI explained what mono mode did without digging through the manual.
The next thing I struggled with was CEC. It certainly wasn't as smooth as I hoped for. I enabled all of the CEC functions and... nothing worked. I had the reset the processor and then CEC on/off began to work correctly, but volume control was going to the TV and the processor was ignoring it. I played with the "Audio to TV" option as a hunch, but that did nothing. I tried all the different HDMI inputs/outputs to see if that changed something. An hour later, on a hunch, I restarted the AppleTV after deselecting "Audio to TV", and then, *boom* the RMC-1L started to control the volume properly. Success! Now I can live with it.
After a bit more configuration, CEC volume stopped working on the processor again and I had to fiddle around some more. The conclusion I've come to with CEC is this - sometimes the RMC-1L just forgets to listen to CEC volume from the AppleTV. Most of the time turning the Apple TV off/on restarts everything and fixes the problem. However, and I'm still trying to nail this down, but it seems like there are times the TV starts up faster than the RMC-1L and then the order of events that makes the RMC-1L happy don't work and I have to do it again.
This leads into another configuration issue I've been observing with the AppleTV. Sometimes the AppleTV will either drop out of 4K HDR down to 1080P SDR, or it will drop chroma from 4:2:2 down to 4:2:0. This is pretty easy to replicate if you turn off the RMC-1L let the AppleTV pass through to the TV, however I've seen it happen randomly in just normal operation.
Also, during setup I had the RMC-1L crash on me once. It continued to play music, but the entire until was unresponsive otherwise. I had to power cycle to continue.
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Anyways, as I get familiar with the optimal order of operations it seems like I'm fine the majority of the time, and now that I'm done with setup and swapping configs and HDMI ports around all the time, I'm expecting a little more consistency. It seems like Emotiva has made huge strides in firmware stability, and I'm looking forward to some added stability here with updates, but overall there are no dealbreakers. There are only a couple of small issues keeping this processor away from the Marantz level of "it just works".
Sound:Starting off with stereo listening, since that's my priority. Setting the RMC-1L up I came directly from my XSP-1/ERC-4, and to my ears that RMC-1L was immediately "cleaner" and more articulate. It was honestly very representative of what I've experienced with AKM DACs - ultra accurate, but missing a little bit of the wrap you in a blanket warmth. I wouldn't go so far as to say the RMC-1L is clinical, but it's definitely a faster, colder sound than the ERC-4. The DR-2 and 804 D3s are also both very fast so with the RMC-1L I feel like I get a massive sound stage, and a lot of that high end "sparkle" that really makes your ears tingle.
I have to say this, I was going to keep the XPS-1/ERC-4 and run them with home theater bypass, but I don't think I am anymore. I think the RMC-1L is very suitable to my taste (although I am still thinking about ways to play with external DACs). I might use the extra cabinet space to get another DR-2 and run my 804s in bi-amped configuration.
Onward to movies. I started with Tenet - this movie is classically muted on the voice track, but the system was very articulate with good voice separation that didn't get muddied in the background as it did with my little Marantz. Moving on to Hero, I went to the scene with the sword fight in the water garden. Wow. The rain drops made little tingly splashes all around me, and you could really feel every vibration of the chords on his instrument. Next up, I moved on to X-Men: Days of Future Past, and I was just kind of shocked at the spacial-ness of all of the scenes compared to what I experienced before.
Overall the audio quality of the RMC-1L is outstanding. I'm very satisfied on that front. Feature set is excellent. Stability is satisfactory, but has room for improvement.
