CD: Dianne Reeves Never Too Far

You may have noticed this CD pop up in several of my most recent reviews. There is good reason for my repetitiveness here. Many of the tracks in this CD are an awesome test for a system's bass response and accuracy. The bass track in Track #2 “Never Too Far” will sound muddy on an improperly set up or mediocre system. I must have listened to this track 100 times when tuning my reference system's subwoofers - all four of which run in mono, cross over at 80Hz and are equalized through Audyssey MultEQ Pro. Turning off my two Velodyne DD-15 subs to do a strict two-channel evaluation, I listened to the track again with only the subs in my T30-LSE system handling the bass which were powered by the Earthquake XJ-600R digital amplifiers. As I commented in my IPS-1 review, I felt the IPS-1 was driving the bass portion of my speakers better than the more powerful Earthquake digital amplifier. The MMC-1 sounded very transparent to me as well. I did notice the noise floor greatly drop when engaged in “source direct” mode via analog connections to my DVD-5910CI. Two channel purists will definitely want to engage this mode when listening to 2CH analog sources.

SACD: Patricia Barber – Modern Cool

What good is critical music evaluation without testing out some high resolution source material such as one of my trusty Patricia Barber SACDs? Modern Cool is a superb sounding SACD that in my opinion every jazz lover should add to their collection. Track #7 “Company” is a reference track I use to separate REAL speakers from wimpy ones. The same can be said with upstream electronics, particularly amplification. When listening to this track, I closed my eyes to attempt to place where all of the instruments were coming from. The trumpets were dead center (thanks to the magnificent imaging capabilities of my reference speakers). They came at you crystal clear with a bit more of a bite to them then I recalled using the amplifiers in my Denon AVR-5805. The snare drums had plenty of snap to them and seemed to be emanating around and behind the speakers. Cymbal crashes were effortless and well delineated. Listening to the drum solo and twanging of the bass with my eyes closed gave me that “better than being there” experience placing me right in front of the drum kit in a cozy jazz cellar. All I was missing was a brandy Sniffer and a fine Cuban (cigar that is). The Emotiva combo had no problems being pushed hard on this song and the dual 10”s in my RBH T-30LSE’s loved the workout. I would say the Emotiva Theater Series combo has a larger than life sound quality not typically found at this price point. In 2CH “source direct” mode, you really get champagne taste at beer prices.

DVD-Audio: The Beatles Love

The Beatles Love DVD-A has become a benchmark multi channel recording that you will find referenced in many of my reviews. I would have never imagined the 40+ year old Beatles recordings could sound so good. “Because” originally on Abbey Road, was revitalized on this recording. The true dynamics of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were revealed, reminding me there will never be another band like the Beatles. “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” had a very psychedelic and floaty feel to it. I wasn’t expecting near 20Hz bass extension in this recording, but it was there for the T-30LSE system to playback without any contentions. I felt the floor joists rumble on this track just as I did with my reference rig powering my speaker system.

Unfortunately the MMC-1’s HDMI inputs don’t support audio, so I had to use the old fashion 6CH analog connection route. I didn’t overlay PLIIx Music Mode in this scenario because I felt the added A/D and D/A conversion stage slightly corrupted the fidelity by raising the noise floor. In the next generation processor from Emotiva, this won’t be an issue so until you can take advantage of their 40% trade up program, you’re gonna have to live with multi channel DVD-A and SACD discs in 5.1. Isn’t the convenience of our modern lives so sickening that an issue like this even crosses our radar?

Measurement & Analysis

Frequency Response

MMC-1 Frequency Response

In “source direct” mode, the Emotiva preamp is rule flat beyond 100kHz with a 3dB point in excess of my test gear which is limited to 200kHz. In normal stereo mode, the frequency response is limited to the ½ the sampling rate of the ADC as expected which in this case was 22kHz.

FFT Distortion Analysis

FFT Distortion Analysis at Full Power

At 3.5Vrms into a 600ohm load, the MMC-1 exhibited excellent distortion characteristics (10.865+77.616)dBv = 88.5dBV or 100*alog^-1(-88.5/20) = .0038% The slight rise in noise above 10kHz was perplexing, especially since the unit was engaged in “source direct”, but so low in the mud (-100dBV), that it really wasn’t worth further investigation.

Preamplifier Test Notes

The MMC-1, like the DMC-1 has an unusual amount of drive capability with a measured Max Vout of 6.5Vrms at less than 0.01% THD + N. The gain of the preamp is 7.28 or 17.2dB. This preamp has more than enough drive to hit maximum levels of any consumer audio amplifier I know of.

Signal to Noise ratio was less than stellar on this processor however. In “source direct” mode, I measured around 80dB (a-wt) with 200mV in and 1Vrms out which is quite good. With the ADC engaged, the SNR dropped nearly 30dB with the subwoofer on and nearly 40dB with the subwoofer off. The SNR corruption was mostly due to out of band noise so my measurements are far worse than what is actually audible. I found this unusual behavior to be only audibly noticeable if I was sitting within a few feet of my speakers with the volume gain cranked up to LOUD levels (>100dB at the listening position). Again this is not an issue if you use “source direct” for analog sources or if you stick your ears close to your speakers with the volume levels cranked.

Conclusions

My extensive listening and operational tests of the MMC-1 were virtually identical to that of the DMC-1 we previously tested. They are solid product offerings which are easy to operate, contain most of the features sought out in today’s more sophisticated home theaters, and in the new mantra of Emotiva – wont break the bank to own them. For those looking for a state of the art processor – look elsewhere or wait for the new batch of Emotiva processors do out early next year. For those seeking solid performance, with a high WAF, this is a good choice. Paired with the IPS-1 7CH power amp and Emotiva’s super trade up program on their processors, the Reference Theater Series separates combo becomes a great choice in the proverbial sea of consumer electronics options.

Emotiva Audio Corporation
106 Mission Court

Suite 101

Franklin, TN 37067

615-771-1224

877-EMO-TECH
Fax: 615-771-1128

MMC-1 Review
MSRP: $1,199