I bought a used, but still under transferable warranty, LMC-1 that had been repaired and serviced by Emotiva for the original owner/seller. According to him the unit had had some bad boards and firmware problems. Initially, it worked fine and sounded good enough: on the bright side of neutral (but not offensively so), decently wide sound stage, adequate dynamics and detail. I used it for two-channel stereo and HT with a NAD 216 and Adcom 545 amps, Monitor Audio Silver 2 speakers, and an H-K DVD player. I thought the chassis, knobs, and remote ahd a cheap build quality, but the real problems were internal. Within 5-6 months, it started getting buggy, freezing and switching inputs randomly and unresponsive to the remote. At 6-7 months it started to have intermittent trouble starting up at all. By month 7 it no longer started up at all. Researching on the web, I found multiple reports of this pattern of malfunction and that it is due to a bad circuit board (which one i no longer recall). I called Emotiva as it was still within the warranty period and the warranty was supposedly transferable. Despite having the serial number, the name of the original buyer, and verifying the unit was still within warranty, the service department refused to honor the warranty unless I could tell them the exact date and location of purchase. This I could not do, no longer being able to contact the original owner. So, I have a large paperweight, and Emotiva has someone who will never buy one of their products again. Further research on line reveals that people appear quite happy with their power amps, but that their pre-pro models suffer from serious reliability problems. I would not recommend taking a chance on an LMC, or other Emotiva processor.

Ease of set-up, build quality, SOUND quality and first rate customer service....and price!

None noted so far. An internal HDMI would be nice, but that'll be on their next model and at 40% off!

Bought this with the LPA-1 amplifier. It replaces an old Onkyo recv'r and for the money ($749 for the combo) it is a no-brainer. Sound quality, build and service are A-1. For the price of a midline HT recv'r, I now own separates, so I have power and flexibility. Sound is way better than the Onkyo. Even comes with an external HDMI switcher(x2).
Only 2 knobs on the front-volume and elector. Very easy to set-up. All the latest audio codex (except HD-Dolby and DTS Master), and when the LMC-2 comes out in a few months, I can purchase it for 40% off the retail price...and keep my LMC-1! It also has a built in 25w X2 Zone 2 mode for powering a remote set of speakers. All in all, I could not be happier with this product. Check out the reviews on their wedsite from Audioholics...that is wahat ultimately sold me on this product.

Customer Service

Very helpful and fast on the delivery/replacement.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, NAD