cawgijoe
Emo VIPs 
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Dec 3, 2020 22:56:21 GMT -5
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. To add to that like I said earlier, if you buy a tv this weekend that has an ATSC 1.0 tuner, you will be able to continue using that set with a box or dongle after they actually turn off 1.0. |
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Post by rbk123 on Dec 4, 2020 0:36:17 GMT -5
Again I can only go on my experience with the XMC-1 with 4K board which was excellent. Not to discount anyone else. Again, no reason to only go by that. All you need to do is listen to, and discuss with, others that aren't having the same results as you. Give it a shot, I think you can do it. |
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cawgijoe
Emo VIPs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Dec 4, 2020 6:44:27 GMT -5
Again I can only go on my experience with the XMC-1 with 4K board which was excellent. Not to discount anyone else. Again, no reason to only go by that. All you need to do is listen to, and discuss with, others that aren't having the same results as you. Give it a shot, I think you can do it. I no longer own a XMC-1 so there is no reason for me to check with others. I am expressing my experience with the unit which was good. |
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Post by rbk123 on Dec 4, 2020 9:37:36 GMT -5
Well you gave it a good try. I still think you have it in you, though.
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Post by synmag on Dec 4, 2020 16:58:48 GMT -5
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. To add to that like I said earlier, if you buy a tv this weekend that has an ATSC 1.0 tuner, you will be able to continue using that set with a box or dongle after they actually turn off 1.0. True, I guess what I was trying to convey is that when someone tells me oh that won't happen for years, I have the experience to know that those years go by very quickly. It's true that you will be able to add a set top box theoretically, but in practice, you might find it difficult. I was around as ATSC started broadcasting back in the early 2000s and until they made it mandatory to include ATSC tuners in TVs, we were supposed to be able to add a box but it was difficult to find one. I know some TV set top boxes came with ATSC tuners and some were even able to record but in Canada anyway, I couldn't find any at the time. I suspect it will be similar with ATSC 3. I guess when all TVs include the tuner it doesn't make sense for a company to invest in selling a separate box. According to the article I read there is only one device currently and it is meant more for PCs than TVs. Not sure why. Anyway, my main point though was that once the TV broadcast standard of AC3 goes away the XMC-1 will truly be a legacy device. I'm just hoping that Dolby plus will handle 5.1 and atmos can be dowmixed to it. How well that is down of course is another question mark because it can introduce issues such as the scene in Treadstone I mentioned. I only have the free trial of Amazon prime so I'm not sure what sound format it's in. It's possible I guess that it is downmixinng atmos to dd which created that anomaly. |
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Post by synmag on Dec 4, 2020 17:03:10 GMT -5
Well you gave it a good try. I still think you have it in you, though. As the OP of this thread, I appreciate any and all comments based on personal experience so let's try to keep it civil. |
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Post by rbk123 on Dec 4, 2020 18:55:16 GMT -5
Lighten up Francis. I never told him not to give his experience.
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cawgijoe
Emo VIPs
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
Posts: 5,035
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Post by cawgijoe on Dec 4, 2020 23:55:49 GMT -5
To add to that like I said earlier, if you buy a tv this weekend that has an ATSC 1.0 tuner, you will be able to continue using that set with a box or dongle after they actually turn off 1.0. True, I guess what I was trying to convey is that when someone tells me oh that won't happen for years, I have the experience to know that those years go by very quickly. It's true that you will be able to add a set top box theoretically, but in practice, you might find it difficult. I was around as ATSC started broadcasting back in the early 2000s and until they made it mandatory to include ATSC tuners in TVs, we were supposed to be able to add a box but it was difficult to find one. I know some TV set top boxes came with ATSC tuners and some were even able to record but in Canada anyway, I couldn't find any at the time. I suspect it will be similar with ATSC 3. I guess when all TVs include the tuner it doesn't make sense for a company to invest in selling a separate box. According to the article I read there is only one device currently and it is meant more for PCs than TVs. Not sure why. Anyway, my main point though was that once the TV broadcast standard of AC3 goes away the XMC-1 will truly be a legacy device. I'm just hoping that Dolby plus will handle 5.1 and atmos can be dowmixed to it. How well that is down of course is another question mark because it can introduce issues such as the scene in Treadstone I mentioned. I only have the free trial of Amazon prime so I'm not sure what sound format it's in. It's possible I guess that it is downmixinng atmos to dd which created that anomaly. I was also around for the ATSC transition and was able to get three coupons from the govt to use on converter boxes. In fact I still have two of them, one failed. Did not have any problem finding them. There will be boxes for you to receive ATSC 3.0 because there are a lot of TVs out there that will receive 3.0 with a box and people will not immediately replace their TVs. There will be a market for the boxes. |
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Post by synmag on Dec 14, 2020 1:58:42 GMT -5
Received it on Thursday and set it up yesterday. I'm going to put my conclusion here as I'm sure this is going to get long.
The good: As others have said it, it sounds amazing. Arc works nicely with my TV except for audio over HDMI. No major issues (which affect sound quality, see the bad for more)
The bad: Setup is the opposite of easy and intuitive. Took me a long time to get it to recognize my bluray player and get sound from my TV to the XMC.
See below for more details...
Initially, I had major buyer's remorse as I wanted to spend more time with the Rotel before replacing it and took the time to troubleshoot bass management which I know was possible since it was fine through analog 5.1 from my Denon DVD player. After fixing the bass and watching some intensive movies and good music (I love the sound of a big bass in jazz with properly setup bass!) I really questioned that the added clarity was worth the $1500! It's the case of ignorance is bliss as anyone who is not an audiophile probably would find nothing at fault with the Rotel. After all the RMB-1075 and the rsp-1069 were made for each other plus the B&W speakers were also well matched. In fact, Rotel used B&W speakers to demo that generation of their amp and even used it on their brochures IIRC. They are also built like a tank and I honestly believe they would outlast me! It doesn't hurt that setup was as simple as hooking everything up and assigning the proper inputs and all worked the first time, well except for audio over HDMI from the TV but let's just say it doesn't work with the XMC either (perhaps it's a TV issue since there are two processors that don't work with it. hmmm) but more on that later.
The xmc came in really good condition, it's not exactly like new but it will do. I made quick work of the physical connections which saw me eliminate a good amount of old cables with HDMI. Then the fun started. First, arc worked nicely with the menu showing up on the TV and I was able to control the xmc with my TV's remote for power/volume which is really nice. However, I could not get sound from the TV via HDMI. I hooked up the optical cable and still no sound. Strange, there were no issues with sound through optical on the Rotel. After trying various things I gave up and moved on to my blueray player. No picture or sound via HDMI! After spending time trying various menu settings I started to worry about the player and hooked it back to the TV. No problems. Back it went to the xmc. After selecting 1.4 for HDMI I was able to get it to work.
The TV sound took a long time of playing around with switching settings on both devices. The TV has HDMI 2 so 1.4 wasn't it. Now it's possible that I don't fully understand the arc function/setup but the way I did it was I selected HDMI 1 as input and optical as audio. I had tried ARC HDMI after I realized that any input can be selected as input other than the 8 HDMI connections but still no audio. After getting frustrated and changing things on the TV I got some sound but it stopped as I moved on with the setting and couldn't get it back. Finally, I found it and the weird thing is that once I got it to work HDMI 1 was showing Video as HDMI 1 and audio as optical 2.
The odd thing was that I had to select HMDI for sound on the TV while I had no HDMI cable connected to HDMI 1. I just had arc out from the xmc going to arc on the TV. I have set all the settings in both units I could find to ARC and can't get audio via HDMI. I'm open to suggestions on this front. To make things worse, after switching inputs and coming back to HDMI 1 audio didn't work again until I rebooted the xmc. Going to standby or switching HDMI inputs didn't do the trick.
What was truly weird though was that as I was switching setting values on the xmc the display started acting up. It would overlay the status display with the volume graphics and essentially mask it where parts of the volume bar were visible around the status display. Then the status display would overlay itself in a lower position. At this point, I tried pushing info/menu/etc and even rotating the volume control. At one point as I turned the volume to the right it was as if the action wasn't working properly, the value would go up and then down while turning it in one direction. It would do the same the other way. I took a bunch of pictures and even video of it. I was able to clear it only by rebooting. Putting it on standby didn't clear it. This happened after spending time in the setting menu and changing things around to set up all the inputs and fix the TV sound. What I noticed was that as I scrolled through the available inputs in the input section the unit was trying to lock onto the signal for several inputs. If I pressed up several times, it would halt on one and when it finished with polling it jumped two or three inputs up where the list got all mixed up. It was as if I was alpha testing the unit. Fortunately, it did not happen again after the reboot but I was careful to move through the inputs slowly and wait for polling to finish before moving to the next value.
I setup the speakers/distance/level and have not touched bass management yet as I need to first get my sound engineering degree...or just read the manual. I find the menu really counterintuitive with the menu moving around on me instead of me moving around in the menu. But maybe that's just me.
Listening tests:
I sampled my only bluray disk I have which is the LOTR that came with my player. It has DTS-HD audio which sounded amazing, even without the bass properly setup. The fireworks at the beginning sounded great. I'm looking forward to at least finding and setting cross overs properly and watching a movie. The one thing the Rotel has is a great kick when it comes to movies. The fight scenes in Treadstone were so thick I could almost feel getting punched. I have to dial that in with the xmc.
I'm glad that youtube works well both from the app on the TV and Chromecast. No skipping/gap issues some have reported. Of course, this may be due to the fact that I'm using optical at this point, though keeping that way is not an issue since arc doesn't support anything more than 5.1 anyway. It just bugs me that I can't clean up all the cables and stick with HDMI.
SACDs sound amazing through 7.1. The Denon is 1.2 HMDI so no SACD over HDMI to compare dacs. But interestingly they're both Burr Brown just different generations.
Today I watched the Seal concert that was cast by Yahoo I think in 2015. It sounded amazing. I could feel the small size of the venue. I have also tried some classical, violins/cellos sound lifelike. Sax and piano in jazz is great not to mention the bass.
I would say the xmc definitely sounds better than my Lmc did based on memory. It is extremely clean sounding to the point where the way I would describe it is that the speakers disappear when I close my eyes and focus on the music. It's more relaxed and natural feeling.
I'm eager to try out some high rez music. I tried connecting my LG V20 which has quad dacs that in itself sounds awesome but I only have USB-c to regular USB cable not the square termination. Why would Emotiva put not one but two USB jacks on both the front and back and not allow to stream over them? I do have a regular USB cable with the square termination from a printer which should work with a laptop but first I need to upgrade to Win10 which I'm planning to do soon.
I'd be interested in getting my V20 to work with it as I read a column once about testing the LG V30 with a hi-fi system and sounding much better than a dedicated much more expensive component. The v30 has both hardware and software MQA capability and I believe so does my V20.
I really need to read up on what the 12db/24db ladder options mean in the bass setup and I will have to play around with the available room correction options as well. That will have to wait for a while.
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