Emotiva or stick with my Anthem??

Goatwuss, The Anthem is great, but no HDMI which means I'm
confined to a 5.1 system via analog from my BDP-05 player. I currently have two monitor audio gold series 10's as wall hangings.

Yeah honestly, I would like to hear the UMC-1 sounding terrific (if it actually ever gets released), myself. However, the proof is in the pudding.
Even a good review or two would not cement anything, imo. We, the people, still needs to get one OF these in our hands to actually see what's what! Until then, it's all sales hype, speculation, more he-said, she-said, and hopeful promises.
SO WHERE IS THE DARN THING?! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE THESE AVAILABLE BY LAST CHRISTMAS, FOR HEAVEN SAKES!

I was on the preorder list for the UMC, then the more I found out about it, I realized it wasn't for me. The topper was the DACs it's using, CS42518 is usually found at the low-end of AVR lines like the Onkyo 6xx. The hard core supporters on the Emovita lounge try to explain it away as "it's how the DACs are implimented" but you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig. I do believe in Emovitas business model, but they still need to make a buck. So to the waiting buyers that think they are going to get a $2500 pre/pro for $700, good luck. I will have to hear it for myself before I would be convinced it will compete with units in that price range.

It's not just Emotiva being late with their new prepro; everyone else who demo'd at CES or CEDIA is late too. Except for the NAD upgrade modules, I have not seen any of the new prepros (or upgrade modules) released.

By the way, being able to upgrade a module, rather than buying a whole new prepro is to me, as good as it gets. And NAD's modules are relatively inexpensive (the Theta modules are going to cost more than a good prepro).

Russ