CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Ron W]

Emotiva seems to be a company that is coming in to its own and the UMC-1 is a tremendous value. It has the same processing chips as the Cary Audio Pre-Pro, at a "third" of the price with more features and connectivity. For those that want balanced outputs, after the UMC-1 is out for awhile, Emotiva is going to introduce the XMC-1 that will probably sell for an extra $300-400 over and above the UMC-1. Say what you will but the great things about these "internet-only" companies like Emotiva, Outlaw, Oppo etc. is that they have sales/support operations that make the "mainstream" companies look like amateurs. Certainly there are still some software issues and firmware updates but that seems to be the trend nowadays as this stuff gets more and more complicated and the mainstream manufacturers "rush" to get new models on the market. The highly touted Oppo BDP83 was no exception to this as well. As far as firmware updates are concerned, Onkyo and Integra are no strangers to this since their most recent models had firmware updates announced within days or weeks after they were introduced!

Outlaw is a terrific company and I own some of their equipment, including a couple of multi-channel power amps. Unfortunately, their problem is they got in to bed with a company(Sherwood Newcastle) that in recent years, has been notoriously late with product introductions. The highly touted R-972(with the "alleged" state-of- the- art "Trinnov" room correction process)is STILL in final testing. It was introduced at the CE show TWO YEARS AGO! The Outlaw 997, the Pre-Pro that is built on the platform of the 972, can't be introduced until at least 60 days after the introduction of the S/N AVR R-972! At this rate, by the time it is introduced, it could be already almost TWO generations behind but still wanting current pricing for their product! I think they are going to have a problem and that is assuming either of these products EVER becomes available and for Outlaw, that would be a shame.

[Bucketfoot]

You won't get any debate from me on the value of Emotiva gear

I hope they get the UMC-1 sorted out, as I would love to buy one once they are proven stable. This is just becoming far to common in consumer electronics...

[garyfritz]

[dturco]

Anyone here have Emotiva amps?

http://emotiva.com/upa2.shtm

I am think about buying a UPA2 And using it just for the surround side channels. I mean how much juice do the presence channels need? I just picked up a set of side speakers [Bi polar] for $50, rated for 100 watts. This amp has 125 watts x2 for 8 ohms and 185 watts at 4 ohm. My new to me speakers are 6 ohm.

I have been looking for used amps on Ebay and audiogon, but everything is nearly this price anyway and used. What's the down side for my usage? I won't be using it for critical listening so how much difference can there be?

[greg_mitch]

[WanMan]

I have a pair of XPA-5 multichannels amps.