I have owed both the Anthem 30, and the UMC 1.
The Anthem runs flawless, and sounds great. If you dont care about HDMI, HD audio, and some sweet manual EQ's, keep your Athem...it is awesome.
Now, this is going to stir the pot. I feel the UMC 1 has INCREDIBLE sound. Ive also owned Bryston prepro's, Rotel Prepro's, Ayre top seperates and more. The Emo UMC is just as good in sound IMO. The manual EQ is better then ANY Ive ever seen. 31HZ-18khz 11 band EQ! Thats a nice range, and a bumb here and there makes all the difference. The UMC 1 has great features as well....the problem is not all work 100% as they should. Examples- shut off issues, default saved sound mode issues, slow hdmi switching, no turn off of enhanced bass when front are set to large(if your letting the UMC decode). Now, I have read most, if not all of these are fixed in the new .5 beta update....but I am waiting for the confirmed build which is to release anyday now. I can live with the issues. It really comes down to your setup. I do believe the next update will get it all right. I waited until about 3 weeks ago to buy mine....so mine runs pretty well. Some older units seam to have issue's. Mines great.
The Anthem runs flawless, and sounds great. If you dont care about HDMI, HD audio, and some sweet manual EQ's, keep your Athem...it is awesome.
Now, this is going to stir the pot. I feel the UMC 1 has INCREDIBLE sound. Ive also owned Bryston prepro's, Rotel Prepro's, Ayre top seperates and more. The Emo UMC is just as good in sound IMO. The manual EQ is better then ANY Ive ever seen. 31HZ-18khz 11 band EQ! Thats a nice range, and a bumb here and there makes all the difference. The UMC 1 has great features as well....the problem is not all work 100% as they should. Examples- shut off issues, default saved sound mode issues, slow hdmi switching, no turn off of enhanced bass when front are set to large(if your letting the UMC decode). Now, I have read most, if not all of these are fixed in the new .5 beta update....but I am waiting for the confirmed build which is to release anyday now. I can live with the issues. It really comes down to your setup. I do believe the next update will get it all right. I waited until about 3 weeks ago to buy mine....so mine runs pretty well. Some older units seam to have issue's. Mines great.