I have had my UMC-1 for a while now. I also read about all of the problems. It seems that Emotiva made a huge error by releasing a buggy product. By the time I had ordered mine a year ago most of the bugs were fixed. I have no trouble at all with it and I have a fairly big theater system in a dedicated room. Sonically it's better than the Marantz and Onkyo units, which I also owned. It also does a nice job on two channel when I don't want to play with my 2nd, tube based system.
My buddy paid 2K for his Onkyo and we agreed the UMC-1 was not as nicely designed, harder to set up and tweak....but nicer sounding when we got it dialed in. I also have the upgrade card that will give me 50% off on the new Processor from Emotiva that comes with the UMC-1. I find that any time a low cost product threatens higher priced ones there is some disenchantment, but that's part of the audio hobby. You don't always get what you pay for. Some times less....sometimes more.
Rob
My buddy paid 2K for his Onkyo and we agreed the UMC-1 was not as nicely designed, harder to set up and tweak....but nicer sounding when we got it dialed in. I also have the upgrade card that will give me 50% off on the new Processor from Emotiva that comes with the UMC-1. I find that any time a low cost product threatens higher priced ones there is some disenchantment, but that's part of the audio hobby. You don't always get what you pay for. Some times less....sometimes more.
Rob