Emotiva XMC-1

chhanthony

Emotiva XMC-1 - High Performance Home Theater Preamp & Audio / Video Processor

http://emonatics.com/XMC-1.shtml

Update from Emofest 2010, 2010-09-05: Below are some rough renderings of the XMC-1 as it is planned today. Planned is the keyword here.

The current plan is for the XMC-1 to be a home theater audio processor with HDMI 1.4 video switch. It is a legacy-free design for inputs and outputs. There are many reasons for this. The key points are that there is no viable HDMI 1.4 video processor on the market that could be used in the XMC-1 design. So, to do HDMI 1.4 with, for example, the UMC-1's Genesis Torino engine, the XMC-1 would have to route around the HDMI 1.4 switching when video processing is enabled or legacy video inputs or outputs are used. There are also HDMI/HDCP licensing restrictions with regard to HDMI 1.4 use.

Nothing is written in stone at this point. Any change to the above description of the XMC-1 would certainly delay its delivery to market and, likely, increase its base offering cost.

It isn't unreasonable to present the XMC-1 as a home theater audio Pre/Pro with video switching capability, provided that that is how it is presented. It also would make sense for Emotiva to partner with a well-respected video processor/scaler, like the DVDO Edge, to round out the overall offering.

The XMC-1 is currently planned to have Ethernet for both firmware update capability and system control. The current plan does not include any USB for media access. The USB decision may very well be revisited. The Ethernet control offering is very cool. Emonatics will be posting a video of some of the very early work Eric has already accomplished in the lab, demonstrating an Emotiva-based processor controlled by an iPad.

The XMC-1 is being discusseed over at the Emotiva Lounge, feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

Note: None of the above XMC-1 design plans are speculation, they are confirmed by Emotiva.
   
  Per Lonnie's explanations, expected 2-channel analog sound quality, starting with the best: XSP-1, USP-1, XMC-1, UMC-1
   
  Per Dan Laufman on 2010-07-10: "...on future models, like the XMC-1. We are making changes to the system control architecture to allow for "painless" SW updates." This means the existing firmware upgrade procedure employed by the UMC-1 will be scrapped for a newer, simple procedure on all future models, including the XMC-1.

This might also give reason to believe that the platform itself on the UMC-1 may be less heavily leveraged for the XMC-1 than originally state by Emotiva. In our opinion, here at Emonatics, it also is the virtual guarantee that there will be no XMC-1 in 2010.

rklpoon

The UMC-1 is still having serious bugs. Maybe Emotiva is just good in producing amps but not processor. I am still struggling to take delivery ofth UMC-1 and am inclined to get a refund-Japanese hdmi 1.4 amps/processor is emerging.