Me too. But my XMC2 sounds great today like it did last week.
Something is off and who knows what that is. I’m sure my salons sound just as good as Amir’s salons even with my lowly XMC2. I believe Lonnie since he is the one who designs these units.
Still, I could have gotten the RMC1L as someone gave me a free 40% card but oh well…I know if I threw a midrange receiver here it wouldn’t sound as good despite the SINAD provided here.
I believe 80 dB, or 100 dB SINAD in that one test will both sound good if other important things are done right and well. Still, I won't buy the one that measured 80 dB, all else being equal if the other one measured much better. It is not about audibility, more about why couldn't they design/build the thing to measure 100 dB SINAD level of transparency if the other one can do it for the same or less money? To me, failing to do so is an indicator that they are not serious enough about something, QA, shielding, grounding, etc., I really don't know but they should know, can't be rocket science right? I know some will say SINAD is not the important, or not the decisive factor in terms of sound quality and I understand that very well, but that's why I would always qualify my points with "all else being equal..", "not about audibility but about the principle, engineering excellence, etc. etc....."
Same thing about preamp processor that sells for $15,000 or more that won't even use flag ship level DAC ICs such as the AK4499, ES9038Pro, OPA's with average specs, average quality volume control ICs etc. People will say its not the ICs that matters, it is all about "implementation", but then my argument is, if the company would spend time on doing implementation right, why not use the best or at least next best, even next next best available DAC ICs regardless? If using the more expensive ICs result in $200, surely those who can afford a $15,000 AVP wouldn't mind another $200 if they know from the spec/info sheet that they are getting the way above average ICs for the DAC, volume control, and buffer OPAs etc. And the chance of measuring better on the bench will most likely improve if better ICs are used in the audio chain from input to output.