Details released here:

http://www.emotiva.com/news.html

Sounds pretty good for $699. Of course, it lists that price as being for "initial run," so I wonder what it will be afterward.

Looks like nice unit at a good price.

I am leaning toward this, the Outlaw 997 will be twice as much, although clearly the Outlaw might be worth it if the Trinnov Optimizer is as good as they expect. The Trinnov model intrigues me because I prefer minimal EQ and tweaking it to my own idiosyncratic ear but on paper it's quite a concept and clearly has been successful/influential in commercial applications. Will it really be a "whole new level" of processing? The Emo pro looks like a very good processor at the level we are already on. Both companies are "hoping" for a December 2008 release for their new processors, but if the delays in the release of the Sherwood 972 are any indication, I would be very surprised if the Emo pro did not beat the 997 to market by several months.

Just an fyi...I have all EMO equipment and although I have had a couple of problems that required their fix, I have enjoyed the sound, upgrades and quality tremendously. I have a LMC-1 and am anxiously awaiting the UMC-1 coming in December (hopefully??). I think they make great products, the price is fantastic but they are a newer company with some yet to be resolved bugs with manufacturing.

Thanks so much for the heads up, that's good to hear, it seems they have a level of quality that considerably exceeds the cost so I am willing to deal with a few issues especially because it is just about the most I can afford (a bit more than I should spend but that's my strategy for staving off buyer's remorse).

I'm listening at the moment to their 09/26/08 webcast re: the UMC-1 and they state that the UMC-1 is currently being tested in China, they will have a demo model at the Audioholics show in October, will do a pilot run in November, and begin production in December, so the time line seems promising.

They also state it's taken 2 1/2 years to get the UMC-1 to this point.

emo webcast

The UMC concept started out as soon as the LMC-1 was released, probably even before. Originally it was the LMC-2 but was renamed UMC about a year ago. It will be an awesome processor with a very rich feature set. I have had their LPA-1 amp and currently have the XPA-5 amp and LMC-1 processor. Can't say enough good things about both pieces although my processor is on the way back to Emotiva for repair at this time. One thing we discuss on the boards is that we all see many of the issues and problems that people experience so sometimes it seems that there are a lot of problems with their products. Not really so. We just see and hear about them where you don't hear about the problems with most store bought electronics. I called the other day to get a return # and talked to Lonnie who is the president. We talked about his latest trip to China and the UMC processor. Where else can you do that?? I've been sold on their products since day 1.

Also good to know because I am thinking about/planning to go with the XPA-5 in addition to an XPA-2 or XPA-3 for a 7.1 system. I am trying to decide which to order first (XPA-5 or XPA-2) to try out with a stereo setup until I purchase the rest of the speakers and "need" the second amp.

hmmmmm

I was going to order a Yamaha RX-V663 for my pre/pro (I already have the LPA-1 here, just waiting for my speakers to arrive).

But I have a question now, I will only have a 2 channel system right now, can I use the R/L audio output from the TV (which my dvd player is hooked up to) and hook those up to the amp for 2 channel? I wouldn't imagine the audio would suffer much going from the DVD player thru HDMI to the TV, to the audio out RCA jacks to the amp...

If I do this, i will be able to wait for the new pre/pro!

-Hutz

I am doing that at the moment going from bluray/directv hd dvr via hdmi to TV RCA to my stereo Rotel amp and it sounds pretty good, that's why I am also thinking about waiting a couple of months for the UMC-1 rather than purchasing the RX-V663. You could also try stereo RCA direct from DVD to amp, that should sound good I would think, if the first solution does not.