xmc1 refurb on sale for $999 does it still make sense to buy

[synmag]

Ok, I'm getting close to pulling the trigger. My concern now is all the various HDMI handshaking issues. I have an old 1080p Samsung bluray player I will use to watch movies with the high def audio for movies either off disk or a connected HD. My Denon DVD player of HDCD should be fine via 5.1 analog. I have a couple of year old Samsung 4k TV. I also have a Chromecast ultra but I can always keep that plugged into the TV. I also have an Xbox 360 at 1080. I'd like to stream HD audio but haven't looked into how that would work. How are you streaming Tidal for example or just a high def FLAC file. Does it have to be streamed from a PC or streaming device or can you select and play files from an attached HD/USB stick? Do you see any issues with my setup? Unfortunately, I will be limited to 5.1 for Netflix movies.

If you look at recent posts at the AVS owner thread people picking up the refurbished XMC-1 recently are still reporting HDMI hand shaking issues that Emotiva is telling them to deal with it. If I'm limited to 5.1 audio I can pretty much use the XMC-1 for audio only except for HD audio.

[Ex_Vintage]

I have had no HDMI issues running a Sony UHD BlueRay player and a Bulesound Node2i for Flac, ALAC and MQA audio. As has been mentioned many times, good "certified" HDMI cables are required. I am running a 10 meter HDMI cable from my PC with no issues.

[synmag]

I don't suppose my 10+ year old 50' HDMI cable from monoprice I used to use with my PC at my previous condo would work. So you do have to "stream" MQA to it? Can't play from an attached USB drive?

[synmag]

Well, I did it. Placed the order last night.

[selind40]

Dec 3, 2020 8:28:25 GMT -5 synmag said:

Well, I did it. Placed the order last night.

Nice......I'm still on the fence, by the time I make a decision they'll be gone... Hahahahaha.

[selind40]

Well.......he who hesitates loses, just tried ordering one.....out of stock. I called and got added to the list to be notified if they come back, however they could not guarantee the same pricing would be offered.  Oh well.....back to my quirky UMC-1 for now I reckon.

[synmag]

I hope me going for it didn't influence you. Perhaps it's better in the long run for you. The reason I ended up going for it was that if I wait another year that means the unit will be one year older and it will have one less year with me. I figure the refurbishment and 1 year warranty is worth it to get it now.

BTW I still haven't got a confirmation email but they did accept my order and took my cc info.

[rbk123]

Dec 2, 2020 21:28:33 GMT -5 synmag said:

If you look at recent posts at the AVS owner thread people picking up the refurbished XMC-1 recently are still reporting HDMI hand shaking issues that Emotiva is telling them to deal with it.

It's because the refurbs have the V3 HDMI board in it, which has plenty of unsolved bugs in it with the original XMC-1. A used XMC-1 with the V2 board is vastly more solid, just not capable of 4K.

[405x5]

Dec 3, 2020 8:28:25 GMT -5 synmag said:

Well, I did it. Placed the order last night.

No handshake issues to speak of, other than a rare occasion where the sound is missing from streaming Netflix via my Blu-ray player. I just flip to another HDMI source, then back and it’s up.

[cawgijoe]

Dec 3, 2020 14:55:32 GMT -5 rbk123 said:

Dec 2, 2020 21:28:33 GMT -5 synmag said:

If you look at recent posts at the AVS owner thread people picking up the refurbished XMC-1 recently are still reporting HDMI hand shaking issues that Emotiva is telling them to deal with it.

It's because the refurbs have the V3 HDMI board in it, which has plenty of unsolved bugs in it with the original XMC-1. A used XMC-1 with the V2 board is vastly more solid, just not capable of 4K.

I don't believe this is true....at least with my experience. I had the original board....which I still have if anyone wants it....and I had the 4K board that I installed myself. It did have a few hicups at the beginning, but firmware fixed that for me and it was solid before I traded it in on the XMC-2.

YMMV

[housetech]

Dec 2, 2020 15:43:18 GMT -5 405x5 said:

Nov 30, 2020 15:00:30 GMT -5 synmag said:

I was a long time owner/fan of the lmc-1 which broke down on my this summer. I picked up a Rotal RSP-1069 which I had high hopes for but I think the lmc-1 sounded better. Does it still make sense at this stage of things i.e. Atmos to buy it? I'm in a condo where 5.1 is more than enough for me. My biggest concern is support if I plunk down the $999 which is almost $1500 Canadian for me after it's all said and done.

I asked through chat what their future support expectation is and was told that they have lots of parts and will support it for the foreseeable future. When I pressed, they said it should be supported for 5 years out of warranty. I'm concerned about spending so much and have it fail out of warranty a few years down the road. If I were to buy it, it would be sufficient for me unless sound formats change significantly. That's my main concern is 2ch audio and movie soundtracks. The hi-def audio is what would be big upgrade for me in addition to the sound quality.

A bit concerned about people reporting various issues with sound re silence between songs etc.

I need to search but anyone know off-hand if 4k movies with high-def sound can be played from an HD/flash drive attached to the USB port?

Were I in your shoes I would buy that XMC1 without waiting and without hesitation.
Dolby Atmos was “the bomb 💣 “ that blew everything. If not for that there would be no “2” and anyone who followed the history knows why.
Nothing wrong with Atmos except for back around 2014, the impeccably bad timing.
1vs 2 XMC sound quality? I would submit that a true A/B setup could make the two virtually indistinguishable, or the XMC 1 APPEAR to sound better than the 2!

Bill

Where XMC-1 vs XMC-2 may differ is the DAC. My speakers sound better with Burr-Brown than any other DAC I've used, even AKM.

[housetech]

Anyone have a ver 1.4b board they want to get rid of?

[cheapthryl]

I have had no issues with my original XMC1 with v2 board. I am not interested in 4k. No need to upgrade until the XMC1 dies.

[cawgijoe]

Dec 3, 2020 15:46:19 GMT -5 housetech said:

Anyone have a ver 1.4b board they want to get rid of?

Just responded to your PM.

[synmag]

What are the three different versions of the board? I understand it came with the 1.4x? originally and then there was the upgrade to 2.0b. Were there two versions of the 1.4? The poster on AVS says the same thing that he has to "play" around with HDMI sources when he has picture issues after switching or turning on the unit.

I'm hoping that a refurbished unit will come with the most recent board and firmware which will hopefully minimize HDMI issues. TBH the only device I need to connect directly to the XMC-1 is the blu ray player to get DD truehd/dts master and possibly my laptop to stream HD audio.

BTW are people here following the sound standards? I was doing some research into the lossless movie sound on discs vs netflix atmos and I came across DD Plus. Also, ATSC 3 is being updated to atmos as well so it looks like 5.1 may be the new prologic soon. Does anyone know if atmos can be downmixed to DD plus which the XMC-1 can handle? I'm hoping they are not going to leave 5.1 people hanging.

I thought AC3 was safe for a while since it's the ATSC standard and also the defacto standard for TV set top boxes. I was surprised to learn that a bunch of TVs come with ATSC 3 tuner in 2020 and some TV stations in the Las Vegas area have been broadcasting ATSC 3 with other markets coming online by the end of 2020. Which means it's just the matter of time before it trickles down to regular TV and other devices.

Thoughts?

[cawgijoe]

Dec 3, 2020 16:27:17 GMT -5 synmag said:

What are the three different versions of the board? I understand it came with the 1.4x? originally and then there was the upgrade to 2.0b. Were there two versions of the 1.4? The poster on AVS says the same thing that he has to "play" around with HDMI sources when he has picture issues after switching or turning on the unit.

I'm hoping that a refurbished unit will come with the most recent board and firmware which will hopefully minimize HDMI issues. TBH the only device I need to connect directly to the XMC-1 is the blu ray player to get DD truehd/dts master and possibly my laptop to stream HD audio.

BTW are people here following the sound standards? I was doing some research into the lossless movie sound on discs vs netflix atmos and I came across DD Plus. Also, ATSC 3 is being updated to atmos as well so it looks like 5.1 may be the new prologic soon. Does anyone know if atmos can be downmixed to DD plus which the XMC-1 can handle? I'm hoping they are not going to leave 5.1 people hanging.

I thought AC3 was safe for a while since it's the ATSC standard and also the defacto standard for TV set top boxes. I was surprised to learn that a bunch of TVs come with ATSC 3 tuner in 2020 and some TV stations in the Las Vegas area have been broadcasting ATSC 3 with other markets coming online by the end of 2020. Which means it's just the matter of time before it trickles down to regular TV and other devices.

Thoughts?

Ok...lots of stuff here.

I think there were three boards....the original....which I had....the second board which was the b board, I believe, and then the 4K board. I don't recall the reason for the interim board, but someone here can answer that.
My original board worked fine. My 4K board worked fine after a firmware update or two.

Your bluray player should work fine. Can't answer the laptop question as I never used one for that purpose.

The refurb XMC-1s as far as I know come with the 4K board.

Cnet article: www.cnet.com/news/next-gen-tv-is-free-4k-tv-with-an-antenna-and-its-coming-this-year/

Quote pulled from the forum: "It sounds like you're referring to the video board versions. V1 was the HDMI 1.4b, V2 was the one 4K input/output without HDR capability, and V3 is the upcoming HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2b/HDR/Dolby Vison on all inputs with two outputs." The V3 board is the "current" 4K board in the XMC-1.

I would not worry about ATSC 3.0 for now. I have a good friend who is on one of the boards dealing with ATSC 3.0 and he says that we are definitely heading that way, but it will be a few years before ATSC 3.0 is the standard and ATSC 1.0 will be available for years to come. ATSC 3.0 is very exciting. It's going to be a slow ramp up. There will be "dongles" and set top boxes available so that people with older sets can take advantage of 3.0 with their current 4K sets. You don't have to buy a new set.

There are very few TV's currently with 3.o tuners built in....Sony's 900 series has it as well as higher end Samsung and LG OLED sets.

[rbk123]

Dec 3, 2020 15:32:31 GMT -5 cawgijoe said:

I don't believe this is true....at least with my experience.

And yet *lots* of people have issues with it, just read the V3 thread and AVSforums now. Then go read any ongoing issues people have with the V2 board and let me know if you find any. There's a reason why they stopped trying to get it to work with the -1 and focused on the trade-in, which is a perfectly good thing they did - win/win for both parties. But those buying the refurbs are rolling the dice when it comes to HDMI 2.0b.

[synmag]

Yes, the refurb comes with 2.0b. There is no 2.2b, the latest version 2.1. it sucks a bit that the latest board didn't get 2.1 for full 4k compatibility. BTW according to the HDMI Wikipedia page it's understandable why everyone is having so much trouble getting hdmi devices talking to each other. It seems like even the specific version numbers seem to be suggestions i.e. manufacturers don't have to implement all aspects of a specific version.

Yes, based on what I read broadcasters with ATSC have to continue broadcasting ATSC 1 for 5 years after bringing ATSC 3 online. Dan said in a video that it's built to last and it should work for 10-15 years. By that math mine should last 5-10 years.

[jra]

I have 3 XMC-1's. I standardized on them for 2 channel/5.2 channel needs. They are *amazing*. I paid full price for 2, got one second hand. At $999 bite Emotiva's hands off :-).

[cawgijoe]

Dec 3, 2020 18:40:00 GMT -5 rbk123 said:

Dec 3, 2020 15:32:31 GMT -5 cawgijoe said:

I don't believe this is true....at least with my experience.

And yet *lots* of people have issues with it, just read the V3 thread and AVSforums now. Then go read any ongoing issues people have with the V2 board and let me know if you find any. There's a reason why they stopped trying to get it to work with the -1 and focused on the trade-in, which is a perfectly good thing they did - win/win for both parties. But those buying the refurbs are rolling the dice when it comes to HDMI 2.0b.

I don’t need to go to AVS to read anything especially since my processor is the XMC-2. Again I can only go on my experience with the XMC-1 with 4K board which was excellent. Not to discount anyone else.