tmassey

You have 30 days to return it if you don't like it also, so it can't hurt. Let us know what you think if/when you do get it!

Try and figure out what you see you having when you are finished, and work towards that. If you do eventually want towers, figure out which ones you like. Whatever your choice is will have a pretty big impact on the receiver to use. If you plan on sticking with bookshelfs, that receiver would be great, but it wouldn't be very future proof. It only has 2 preouts and not a whole lot of power to work with, and you would be limiting yourself to a 5.1 setup. Check this one out. That would be a lot more receiver than your Marantz and be a little less money. Pioneer VSX-23txh on Audiogon Specs

Those khorns look ridiculously big with that lady standing between them.

Tech Support apologized on the phone to me and said the UMC-1 should have been fully upgraded out of the box. The handshake has improved so far, though I have only tried it a few times, switching my sources back and forth from stereo to dolby and dolby to trueHD. And the xbox always boots up now on the first try. Overall, it just feels more solid. Its pretty quick, but still doesn't seem as quick as what I had. As far as the sound being upgraded from your specific model, I have no idea. It was a pretty big difference for me though, I previously had a VSX-1018-AHK from Pioneer. It was 499 about 3 years ago I believe if that gives any indication as to the quality. The guy I talked to at Emotiva apologized for my troubles because he said it should have been fully upgraded and ready to go out of the box. Really though, the upgrade wasn't bad at all once I got the newest versions of the updater and the firmware itself. And to clear something up you were talking about earlier, they do have a 30 day money back guarantee.

Mainly the handshake issues with the xbox were pretty annoying. The handshake wasn't happening fast enough and the xbox needed it to boot so it kept rebooting and never loading up. And also, there were audio drops out when playing some stuff in Dolby Digital. As far as gaming, it was excellent. Playing Modern Warfare 3, I could more clearly tell how far away people were that I could not see and the sounds coming from behind me just felt more accurate. Overall, it just feels more enveloping if that makes any sense for movies and games. According to the forums at Emotiva, people are getting confirmation emails on the xmc-1 so it should be close. Rumor has it is going to be around fall.

Too bad no one really knows what the XMC-1 will be all about. That was the one factor that made me decided to get the UMC-1 over everything else, because of the 40% discount. And I did finally upgrade it with the correct firmware (the problem was I was using an older version of their updater) and the quirks have all disappeared. If I can manage to sell the UMC-1, I am probably looking at around 500$ for a 1500$ processor out of pocket expense. I just have to hope the XMC-1 will be fairly state of the art and bug free

Just got off the phone with tech support at Emotiva, apparently the DSP upgrade didn't take but the firmware one did, so the firmware is having trouble speaking with the DSP upgrade, which is where the mismatch is coming from. So yeah, the process does seem fairly buggy. The guy did tell me that the UMC-1 SHOULD have been fully upgrade out of the box, so if you are looking to get one, you shouldn't have to worry upgrading it. Once I get mine upgraded, I'll chime in again and see if anything has improved. I did notice a problem with my xbox though. The xbox needs the handshake to boot, but the UMC-1 is apparently too slow at getting it, so it puts the xbox in a constant reboot loop. The only way I found out how to get past this was to switch to another input on the UMC-1 and then go back to the xbox input. I gotta say though, I talked to a Matt, and he was extremely helpful in explaining to me what was happening. So far, their tech support has been absolutely top notch. I was using the upgrade patch on Emonatics, but it is apparently out of date, so Matt pointed me towards the bottom of the UMC-1 page in the Pre/Pro section on the Emotiva website, and the newest complete updates are there, so make sure you use those as well. And another thing, if you do decide to upgrade, make sure you are always opening the updater and any other file necessary by right clicking and clicking on "Run as Admin". It seems to the trick. As far as the EmoQ goes, I really like how you can save up two 3 different EmoQ settings and then apply different ones to different inputs. I like a little more bass when listening to music than I do when watching movies, so it's nice being able to apply the different settings depending on what I am doing.

I don't think the upgrade was worth it. There is no noticeable difference, it may even have gotten worse with the newest 7.04 update. I may not have done it right though, because the display says DSP Mismatch when I turn it on. For some reason, now when I set my xbox to output DD 5.1, I get no sound, but I do hear a clicking sound every 5 seconds or so. I have a feeling I know what it is and ill keep working on it tomorrow. One of the upgrades was a little goofy when trying to push it through. Usually you check off the upgrade you want to install and push start, but for this particular one, when you push start, the update gets unselected and it doesn't do anything. It still isn't a deal breaker because the upgrade of quality everywhere else was so good.

I just got the UMC-1 hooked up. At first, I could hear a small but noticeable difference while watching The Dark Knight. I am not sure how EmoQ stacks up against MCACC, but I have a feeling it played a small part. Then I realized for some reason, it was playing in DD, so I swapped the blu-ray player to play in TrueHD and the difference became pretty huge. As far as the 1080p scalar goes, I don't have a good eye for that stuff, nor do I have it hooked up to a cable or satellite box, to even try and see a difference. When I first turned it on, my speakers and subwoofers popped, and almost gave me a heart attack because I wasn't expecting it, but after I upgraded to their beta 2 firmware, it stopped doing it. Also, it seems to be pretty friendly with my blu-ray player and xbox as the handshake takes very little time. Maybe a second or two at the most. Going from my AVR, which I am pretty sure was one of the first generation of AVRs on the market with decoding for the lossless audio formats, I think it was money extremely well spent, and I am more convinced than ever that Emotiva products really do offer the best bang possible for your buck. The handshake for the xbox takes probably about 4-5 seconds less than the time for the xbox to fully boot and get you into the dashboard, so even that 2-4 seconds is a non-issue. It finally cured my upgrade fever, and now back to paying more than the minimum payments on student loans for me.

My driver finally came in. Just wanted to chime in, as there isn't a lot of information about opening up Klipsch speakers. All I needed was a starbit for opening the cover. The tweeter came out with the cover, but each driver is mounted to the frame seperate, so it was just 4 more screws to remove and it pulled right out. The connections were covered with a clear plastic sheath. Just had to pull on it and it slides right down the wire exposing the connection. The wire clips right onto the woofer, so all I had to do was very slightly pry part of the clip back and pull and it came right off. The new one then slid right on, and slid the plastic sheaths back up, screwed the new driver in, screwed the cover on and I was done. It really felt like Klipsch designed them to make them very easy to repair. So long story short, if anyone has any damage to the woofers, they are extremely easy to replace. In fact I now plan on keeping an eye out for blown Klipsch speakers. For as low as some of the prices blown speakers have gone for, it is well worth it to put the 50$ in to buy a new driver and the 5-10 minutes it takes to replace, even if just to resell.

I just got confirmation that my UMC-1 will be here on the 9th (wednesday) so I will definitely let you know what I think and my first impressions, and what bugs I find, if any. I just found Tron at a Disc Replay for 7$ and had to get it, and i hear it's a great movie for showing off your system, so I will let you know what I think about the UMC-1. If it offers anywhere near the bang for your buck I got out of the XPA-5, it's going to be a nice piece of equipment.

It's really hard to say. We can help point you in the right direction and find help find some deals, but when it comes down to it, it is what your ears prefer. Outlaw amps apparently tend to be on the bright side, and coupled with Klipsch speakers which can sound bright to a lot of people, it may not be the ideal match. Is there anywhere in your area you can go to try and demo some different amps? Also, it is okay to go over your speakers recommended power as long as you aren't cranking it up too high. Maybe going with that Marantz receiver is your best bet, as you really can't go wrong if it has pre-outs, and Marantz is a proven brand. And actually just looking that up, I learned something new. Apparently Marantz, Denon, and McIntosh are owned by the same company. In any case, good luck!

I am starting to feel like a fanboy, but you should check out Emotiva. Not sure about the Marantz, but the specs say it is a 110 wpc with 2 channels driven. I would consider an Emotiva XPA-5 and a UMC-1. It would give you a lot more power to work with (200 wpc with all channels driven), and probably right around the same sound quality, and be a bit more future proof. The only problem is you would only have enough channels for a 5.1 system, though I guess you could also get an a-100 from emotiva for your rear surrounds. Not sure how much power they like (The RB-82ii's), but I would think the a-100 would drive them just as well as the back 2 of the Marantz receiver you are looking at. I also notice that separates tend to hold their value a little better than AVRs, so it would be more economically viable to upgrade in the future as well, not to mention the upgrade card you get for buying the UMC-1 (40% off their upcoming XMC-1 supposedly due out this fall, though I wouldn't hold my breath). The only thing I would not do is settle on something, because you will always have that "what if" in the back of your mind, not to mention less money in your pocket in the long run.

I just took the plunge on a UMC-1. If you can wait about a week, I will tell you what I think. Our experiences should be fairly close because we have very similar setups, except my current AVR is lacking compared to yours. They have excellent customer support and a 30 day return policy so I figure why not. And the upgrade card is just the icing on the cake.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your onkyo, that's rough! What are you looking to spend? I am seeing a UMC-1 on audiogon for 395. Unfortunately it doesn't come with the upgrade card for the xmc-1 which was a deal breaker for me.

I don't have a lot of experience with amps, but I really enjoy my Emotiva XPA-5. I think if I were you, I would just stick with that and leave your AVR to power your rears. If it is only driving 2 channels, it should have plenty of power to run them nicely. If not, it would still be cheaper to go with an XPA-2 for fronts and run everything else off your XPA-5 than buying a 7 channel amp of equivalent power. Your fronts would also enjoy the 100 extra watts of power.

Same here! I feel like I would have to spend upwards of 15,000 before I felt like I was upgrading them more than just 'sidegrading'. And since I don't plan on ever spending that much on speakers unless I win the lottery, I really don't mind the thought of having these for life. I also happen to think they are the best looking reference speaker Klipsch has offered.

That is a gorgeous HT room!

I really like the D8000 series Samsung LEDs. They are expensive, but I really don't think I have seen a better display. Calibrated correctly, and I think the colors are right on, the detail is ridiculously good, and there is extremely little motion blur. But for the price, you could pick up a pair of Klipschorns and probably have some money left over. Haven't had a chance to check out the new LED ESXXXX stuff, looks pretty nice.

Don't see any reason why it wouldn't. It should sound awesome! You probably would still need an amp though. It's only going to give you 90 watts per channel if you are driving 5.

HudsonValleyNoah had an RSW-10 he offered to me for 300$+shipping. I didn't have the cash at the time and still don't because I got more bills than normal at the end of this month. Give him a shout and see if he still has it. He said it had a few cosmetic issues, but still an excellent deal imo. It would be a much better sub than the RW-12d, but not sure how well it would work with the 62s. Good luck with your upgrades!

It end up being a total of 51$. Will let you know how it goes in about 7-10 days. I think it was a good choice to replace, I was fearing it was going to be closer to 200-300. This at the very least will get me a much better return on my investment if I want to sell them to replace them with a Palladium setup when I become the CEO of Microsoft. The scary part is I still kind of want to try the super glue trick.

The Best Buy is closing? I'm not sure I ever heard of that happening before. Grats on the 52's though! If you did upgrade later on, they would probably make for some pretty sweet rear surrounds or front wides if you have enough room

It would look very ridiculous having the end of a q-tip stuck to my woofer, but I figure I mine as well go as extreme with my methods as I want, because in the end, if it doesn't work or ruins it even further, it's getting pulled out and replaced anyway. Or I suppose it might be better if I just let it be, replace it, and I'll have an extra part in case anyone here needs it in the future, or myself with the luck I have been having lately. The RC-64 seems extremely common around here.

I'll try a vacuum when I get home. I also heard a q-tip with a dab of super glue on the end works well too, or sticking a piece of scotch tape and pulling it up possibly. However there seems to be a small hard crease in the woofer, which is what I was mostly worried about. I also just read turning up the volume on something very bassy may have a positive effect on popping it back out as well. The dent is a tad worse than the picture shows, or I may be overly critical because I love it so much. Klipsch actually got back to me pretty quick. A new woofer would be 42.00 + tax and shipping. With my luck, once I opened it up, I would end up with a very nice and heavy paper weight.