Emotiva’s Top Secret XMR-1 AVR Makes an Appearance at CES 2018
(AV NIRVANA)(January 9, 2018) The cat’s out of the bag! Now that Emotiva is just months away from officially launching its RMC-1 Processor – one of the industry’s most highly anticipated audio products of 2018 – the company has decided to publicly show a prototype mock-up of a new AV receiver. The XMR-1 is still in its development stage, but could potentially make its way to market within the next year.
Details about the XMR-1 are sparse at this point, but the receiver’s internal processing takes its cues from the RMC-1. That means it will offer both Atmos and DTS:X decoding, along with room correction courtesy of Dirac Live. According to one Emotiva representative, the XMR-1 is projected to offer a beefy 250 Watts of output across 11 channels. It will also carry dual subwoofer outputs.
Connectivity-wise, the XMR-1 is loaded with eight HDMI outputs, two HDMI inputs, 22 speaker posts, and five balanced outputs (three for front channels, two for subwoofers), and a variety of digital and analog inputs. I asked Emotiva president Dan Laufman about the new HDMI 2.1 specification, and he assured me that 2.1 upgrade kits would be made available (for both the XMR-1 and XMC-1) once the new chips come to market. According to Laufman, any HDMI upgrades would be offered at customer friendly price points and easy to install.
Pricing for the new XMR-1 is expected to land around $4,999, however there are plans to release a less expensive model devoid of balanced inputs and outputs at an unspecified date.
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