I've been lusting after Emotiva's UMC-1 pre/proc for some time. I had purchased their XPA-5 5ch (200W/ch) amp about a year ago and three of their ERM-1 speakers during closeout shortly after. I've been very impressed with the quality, price and sound.

The UMC-1 had a rough start with many bugs in the original firmware. I've monitored the forums for awhile and feel the problems are behind them. The company and people are very good to deal with. I decided on Sunday to purchase the unit. Ordered it on Monday and it's arriving today. The cost for the audiophile quality standalone processor is $699 with free shipping. It has a 30-day money-back guarantee and 5 year warranty. Pretty hard to beat compared to other components in this price range. The norm for warranty is usually 90 days to 1year, 2 years at the most.

I've been looking through the online manual and setup looks to be pretty straight-forward. I'll provide my impressions after setup and burn-in. I plan to use it in a 7.1 system with the XPA-5 driving the main 5 channels a NAD 906 multi-channel amp driving the additional surrounds and a Yamaha M-65 used to bi-amp the mains.

I'm using Legacy Focus mains, Legacy Silver Screen center, Klipsch RS-3 side surrounds and T&A P-30 3-ways for rear surrounds. Sources will be Sony 570 Blu-ray player, Dishnetwork HD receiver, Pioneer CLV-1000 Laserdisc, Wii and custom-built HTPC.

My experience has always been with A/V receivers. I have a Sony STR-DA5300ES, Yamaha RX-V2095 and Denon AVR-3300. Going with the XPA-5 provided a good level of improvement. I'm hoping going totally separates will provide a marked improvement over a receiver as preamp system. Anyone have any experience with the UMC-1?