Emotiva LMC-1 Build Quality and Features

A couple of years ago, I had an epiphany of sorts. After years of lusting after and owning several japanese a/v receivers with tons of features and DSP modes, I was ready for something different. I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted, or maybe more precisely, what I didn't want. I wanted clean power, excellent build quality, and maybe most of all, simplicity.

The truth was, even though it seemed cool to know that I could listen to music in a "cathedral" mode, or a movie in "70mm Cinema" mode, I always ended up listening to the pure Dolby Digital or DTS modes. And when listening to music, I wanted to hear it in 2 channel stereo, with my subwoofer turned off. While my receivers were capable of this, it occurred to me that they were not focused on these things, not to mention that they were impossible for my wife to figure out how to use.

So the idea of separates has always been appealing, with one major exception - price. Most any Audioholic has drooled over a matched pre/pro and amp, only to be scared away by a price tag. Emotiva has broken the price barrier with an impressive home theater combo. But at $899, can this combo really move you into the leagues of big-boy gear performance?

Build Quality & Features

Talk about an impressive intro - Emotiva's Ultra Theater Series combo arrived at my door in two large boxes weighing a combined 97lbs! The combo consists of the LMC-1 7.1 Channel AV Preamplifier/Processor, and the beastly LPA-1 7-Channel Power Amplifier. Both were double-boxed and well packaged.

The look of this combo can only be described as clean, powerful - and yes, simple. Both pieces feature a black solid milled aluminum faceplate with brushed silver trim panels. The LMC-1 has two large brushed silver knobs, a blue vacuum fluorescent display, and a single round on/off soft touch power switch centered under the display.

The LPA-1 has a front panel array of LED's that indicate the condition of the amp, and also a single round on/off soft touch power switch centered under the display. This simple array of displays and lighting is wicked-cool. The power buttons on both units glow a soft orange when turned off (standby), then turn blue (matching the display) when turned on. There are seven LED's in the array that represent each amplifier. When you power on, each lamp lights up red in sequence until all seven have blinked, then all seven shift to a solid blue. While this is undeniably cool, it also serves a practical purpose, letting you know that everything is working as it should. If any of the lights should flash red, you have a fault condition. (This happened to me the first time I powered up, but a restart fixed the problem, and it has not happened since.)

Not to be outdone, the LMC-1 has a neat little exploding title animation at start-up, followed by the numerical readout of the volume ramping up to your pre-set default level. So before you even play the first note of music, this system already has your attention.

My favorite thing about the front panel of the LMC-1 preamp/processor is what it doesn't have - there are no buttons or switches (other than the power button), only the two large knobs. The function knob on the left is quite an amazing control. When I first operated this knob, I was concerned at what seemed to be a loose and wobbly connection. I called Emotiva and spoke with Dan Laufman (President, Emotiva Audio Corp.), who described in great detail the workings and engineering of the control. He explained that although it feels a bit loose, it is not, and is actually designed that way. Emotiva tried several options for this part before choosing this one to make sure that it would stand up to repeated use. The function knob has 3 separate functions - push in, scroll up, and scroll down. For most functions, you first push the knob in and navigate the sub-menu section that appears and then use the select up or down function to choose from the available selections. The front panel display shows the menu steps, but the OSD (on screen display) shows more information and is the preferred place to program and set up the LMC-1. The function knob is also used for tuning in AM and FM stations.

The LMC-1 has many audiophile-grade features, including four (Toshiba) output devices per channel (two up and two down), a Toroid mains transformer rated for 800VA, 0.5dB resolution on volume and all channel level adjustments, multiple frequency bass management (60-150Hz selectable) for all full range channels, 24-bit/192kHz digital processing, gold plated input and output connectors, automatic video format transcoder that up-converts composite and s-video source to 480i component, and an 8 channel analog input for DVD-Audio and SACD formats.

The LPA-1 has discrete, dual differential class AB topology with active current sources. The power supply's capacitors have a total rating of 73,600uf. There are six 125 watt channels - one of the channels can be configured for two channel operation. The power output can be configured as 125 watts/8 ohms x 6 channels, or 125 watts/8 ohms x 5 channels plus 2 x 50 watts/8 ohms x 2 channels. (These ratings are all channels driven @ 1Khz, 120VAC/60HZ supply.)