Emotiva UMC-1... Still a science-lab affair?

I'd get a decent 2 channel integrated now with a home theater bypass and add the receiver (which will depreciate faster than a banana) later if you really want good 2 channel sound. I started with a receiver based system, and now I hardly ever turn it on, but then I'm not too excited about 5.1 use.

My opinion.

I love Emotiva XPA amps. Amazing value

The UMC 1 is not a wise investment. Buy a used Anthem 30, B&K 50 s2, Krell Showcase, etc the same like money and run HD audio analog out of a oppo blu ray player. The UMC been around along time, and still buggy. Bass management is broken. Pop noises, audio dropouts + more are present too. A Onkyo 866 is under $600 shipped now on audiogon, I would easily recommend going that route over the UMC

Thanks but I cant find any info on this site for a onkyo 866.What is it?

I just received my Emotiva UMC 1 along with the xpa 5 amplifier. I'm running this with a Theta data basic cd transport, Theta DS pro prime II digital signal processor, apple tv and ps3 for the blu ray. My speakers are Vienna acoustics hadyn grands for the front and rears along with the theatro center. My sub is a pair of velodyne dd10's, along with a dls 3750 which is wired directly to the center speaker. Prior to the emotivas arrival, I used a parasound 1205a amp and the sunfire cinema grand IV preamp and this was a great sounding system to me. I'm not saying that the emotiva sounds better, but my friends and I are very impressed. I read as much as I could about emotiva and did what I could to get around the bass management issues which I experienced as soon as the system was up and running. I utilized the UMC 1's equalizer and made sure that all the speakers were flat below 80 hz. The amp has endless power and remains cool compared to the parasound. I've only used this system for several days now, but I'm throwing everything at it that I possibly can. No sound drops, no problems distinguishing sound fields, no problems returning to the correct settings, no problems switching from blu ray ect... Maybe emotiva has made improvements or it's possible that I received a unit that was well built. Movies, music (cd's and apple tv itunes) and hd tv are all great to hear and see. Very easy to spend hours ifo the system. I believe that everyone has a system or sound that is great to that individual. This may not be for some people, but is sure is perfect for me.
thanks audio and music lovers

I have had my UMC-1 for a while now. I also read about all of the problems. It seems that Emotiva made a huge error by releasing a buggy product. By the time I had ordered mine a year ago most of the bugs were fixed. I have no trouble at all with it and I have a fairly big theater system in a dedicated room. Sonically it's better than the Marantz and Onkyo units, which I also owned. It also does a nice job on two channel when I don't want to play with my 2nd, tube based system.
My buddy paid 2K for his Onkyo and we agreed the UMC-1 was not as nicely designed, harder to set up and tweak....but nicer sounding when we got it dialed in. I also have the upgrade card that will give me 50% off on the new Processor from Emotiva that comes with the UMC-1. I find that any time a low cost product threatens higher priced ones there is some disenchantment, but that's part of the audio hobby. You don't always get what you pay for. Some times less....sometimes more.

Rob