MMC-1 AV Processor Introduction & Set-Up

Lately the Emotiva brand has been the talk of the town, at least on the internet that is. Perhaps it’s because of their very aggressive pricing or maybe their unconventional 40% off tradeup program on new processors for existing owners. Nah, I think it’s because their products look cool, sound great and are easy to operate. Whatever the reasoning, I am certainly finding a lot of great stuff to write about the brand.

In my opinion, however, Emotiva shines more with their amplifier offerings than their A/V processors. When Emotiva first introduced the DMC-1 a couple of years ago, it carried a hefty price tag of $3,500 and was pretty much outgunned (feature wise) by most of the big brand name receivers costing only ½ that price. This product was geared more towards the audiophile that desired simplicity and great sound over the latest video processing features or DSP mode to simulate the sound of your speakers submerged in a partially flushed toilet bowl. It had some operational quirks (such as component video upconversion issues, audio drop outs on DTS, or not properly engaging PLIIx modes, etc), but Emotiva was highly proactive in resolving them. For more details on this product, I suggest reading Clint’s review of the DMC-1.

In an effort to increase value to the consumer, Emotiva basically took the DMC-1 platform and updated it, eliminated a few features and brought the price tag down to $1,199 (nearly 67% cost reduction since the inception of the DMC-1). Enter the MMC-1, the newer and better A/V processor from Emotiva at a substantially reduced cost.

In order to understand the how the MMC-1 stacks up to the DMC-1, I have tabulated the differences for your convenience.

MMC-1 (left); DMC-1 (right)

Aside from these slight feature differences, there are cosmetic differences between the two products with the MMC-1 sporting Emotiva’s latest look which I am told by them will be their going forward appearance of their up and coming products. Personally I like this look at it reminds me of a Krell type product and isn’t as flashy or gimmicky looking as the DMC-1. The MMC-1 comes in a 3RU chassis with a milled aluminum faceplate and silver colored accent panel and has indirect cobalt blue illumination. My sample had rather sharp accent panels which Emotiva has told me they have filed down to make smoother since I noted it on this unit and my IPS-1 7CH test amplifier.

Editorial Note on Emotiva Build Quality
The MMC-1 utilizes an FR4 glass epoxy four layer mother board and in critical high speed areas such as the main DSP and video transcoder, up to eight layer PCB’s are used for signal integrity, ground plane, and impedance control purposes. The MMC-1 uses premium quality discrete A/D and D/A converters IC’s and a high performance, along with a high voltage 8 channel digitally controlled volume control IC. According to Emotiva, this is necessary for maximum headroom and enhanced sound quality, instead of a less costly multi-channel CODEC. Also employed is a low noise toroid power transformer and a fully regulated linear power supplies for the lowest possible electrical noise and radiated EMI. In contrast, many competitor processors use switch mode power supplies to save cost, but they usually do not offer the same noise performance.

Set-Up

Normally I am not one that shows pictures of product packaging in my reviews (in fact, I’ve been known to make fun of this when my reviewers include them), but I must say, I was quite taken by the very thorough packing job Emotiva did on these products. Not only were the MMC-1 and IPS-1 double boxed, but the inner box had thick stryofoam molded inserts to ensure the products were safe and snug – a great preventative countermeasure against the tyranny of the disgruntled shipping guy who is working overtime delivering your heavy package late in the day.

The user manual on the other hand is printed black and white single sided on a whopping 82 pages - can you guess how many trees it took to print this?) It’s held together with a big paper clip and reminds me of one of my weekly lab reports I had to turn in for my Fields and Waves Masters level class in engineering school. Despite its antiquated appearance, the user manual is actually well written and easy to follow for the most part. It even gives useful guidance, such as speaker placement suggestions and a couple of pages for you to write down your settings for future reference. To Emotiva’s credit, I later discovered they sent me an early production piece of the MMC-1 before their final manuals were printed. They informed me that manuals currently shipping with production units come in a plastic spined binder with heavy stock and double sided printed.

The system firmware can be updated as needed via the RS232 port on the backpanel. The latest firmware revision is located at: http://emotiva.com/support.shtm and I highly recommend periodically checking the site to ensure you have the latest revision. It’s good to see a company stand behind its product and continually improve upon its operation when issues arise.

I checked the firmware rev on my test unit and it displayed 2.02, which was not the current version according to the Emotiva website. Thus I broke out my DB9 cable and keyspan USB to RS232 cable and connected my laptop up to the MMC-1. By opening the executable file on Emotiva’s website, I was prompted to select a COM port that the MMC-1 was connected to. I selected “auto” and it found the processor on COM 4. I was then prompted with the screen capture shown here and the downloading process began. I noted the entire process took about 20 minutes so I strongly suggest using AC power if you are using a laptop and/or to disable any screensaver or powersaver options on your laptop to ensure no interruptions during the file transfer process.

Editorial Note to Emotiva
It would be most useful if you provide a laundry list of changes and fixes for each firmware version so the consumer can decide whether or not to upgrade their unit.

MMC-1 back panel view

Just like the DMC-1, the MMC-1 has a nice rear end. All of the RCA connectors are gold plated and the layout is clean, well organized and highly intuitive. Note the HDMI switching, a feature absent in the DMC-1. The MMC-1 still manages to support the high current (500mA) triggers, a feature rarely found on all but top end receivers and A/V processors.

I placed the MMC-1 and IPS-1 matching 7CH amplifier on my new Crystal rack from Audiav and sat in awe at how impressive they looked once installed in this masterful rack. I had comments from many industry folks that walked in my room and saw the Emotiva system powered on in my rack. They almost always asked about the cost and were dumbfounded when showed them the MSRP. “Surely they cant sound that good at that price,” they’d say. I'd reply, “Sit down for a listen… and don’t call me Shirley.”

I connected the system up to my Denon DVD-5910CI and utilized a host of speakers under review as well as my own reference speaker system (RBH Sound T-30LSE and speaker package, Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer). All cables were furnished by Impact Acoustics (Sonicwave toslink) and Bluejeans Cable (10AWG speaker cable and analog interconnects).

I tested the MMC-1 in several scenarios including 7-channels for home theater, two-channels in various listening systems currently under review, and critical two-channel evaluations with my main speakers bi-amped.

Remote Control