It's really difficult for folks when facts disagree with their long held and very strong subjective beliefs.
A little "games theory": It needs at least two. One will lose the "price war" against the (perceived) current upper class, or in the best case will end up in a small and very expensive niche. Two's company, and two is also competition. Saying it in John Nash style, the dumbest boy in the village would get the girl, if he were the only oneThat is why we need a new manufacturer to enter this market with properly designed products. Then it will start stealing their sales, and only then the former manufacturers will pay attention, when it hits their pockets.
That's an interesting idea, you'll certainly get better music playback by doing that. I hope there's a move to improve & personalise headphone experiences to make it far more accurate (due to the HRTF differences person to person) as well as immersive surround simulated systems....I think there's some good potential in headphone & virtualisation technology if it can be done easy enough to the end user whilst retaining sensible levels of expense to the consumer rather than the extortionate Smyth Realizer for instance. Would also cut down on living room clutter....a pair of virtualised headphones for each person rather than a sea of expensive large speakers tangling up the room with no optimal listening position for everyone......headphones with very effective virtualisation technology could solve all this. I think companies should look heavily into developing this kind of technology.Some live from their "reputation" for far too long, for what they do. I'll keep my humble little AVR as long as it will work, and then seriously consider selling the whole speaker "zoo" and buy a pair of decent near- to midfield monitors, going back to stereo. Minimalism FTW. It seems, for surround sound we may have usable headphone-based alternatives soon, that can't really be much worse than this.
Ya got me! Semi proud owner of an MRX 710. I keep it because I see no reason to purchase another overpriced receiver, and ARC seems to work fairly well integrating my subs in my listening space. It definitely has its failings but with my 60+ year old ears, it doesn’t offend. Oh yeah. I don’t use the amps either.Hi!
didnt we have some Anthem people writing here on the forum?
i would love to hear their opinion on these bad measurements!
//Mike
Hopefully someone planning on purchasing will send one in so we know...Anthem just released newer versions - AVM 90 and 70 - at $7,000 and $3,500 respectively. Perhaps these new units perform better . . . perhaps not. Would be great to see measurements to find out.
Ya got me! Semi proud owner of an MRX 710. I keep it because I see no reason to purchase another overpriced receiver, and ARC seems to work fairly well integrating my subs in my listening space. It definitely has its failings but with my 60+ year old ears, it doesn’t offend. Oh yeah. I don’t use the amps either.
So there ya go. My rabid and fanboy fired defense of Anthem. Have at me. I can take it....; )
Hopefully someone planning on purchasing will send one in so we know...
Nice system. What's that old Marantz down there? I had a similar model 20 years ago, and put it up on CL for $20 when one channel died. Given that I got 10 responses in the first minute, maybe I should have asked for more.Happy Sunday everyone, in 2018, I bought this model convinced of its goodness after reading its test carried out by a well-known online newspaper !! As soon as I connected to my system (it replaced a very quiet McIntosh MX119), in XLR only mode, I realized that from the tweeters of my B&W 802D2, in the absence of a music signal, a noise could be heard (2.5 meters away) strange, like the audio of a digital communication !! In short, after long phone calls with the dealer and a month of wasted time, I get a second copy that is used and with cosmetic defects, but which continues to have the defect complained of in the first AVR, so after dozens of phone calls and losing the 10% of the initial value I get a refund of the expense made. ANTHEM .... never see us again !! Now for the HT part I have a MARANTZ AV8805, very quiet (as it normally should be) and of which I am very happy. I am attaching an image of how the plant was in 2018.View attachment 111012
Probably not, I don't see any reason why it would.Anthem just released newer versions - AVM 90 and 70 - at $7,000 and $3,500 respectively. Perhaps these new units perform better . . . perhaps not. Would be great to see measurements to find out.
Can't that sound superiority owners feel they notice, be a result of the advanced calibration system? A lot of people would buy these over something else to get the ARC calibration system which is considered to be far superior to Audessey. After all one of the main uses (if not thee main) is for HT.That's why to them the more expensive boutique brand audio products sound more musical, night and day difference/better etc., without the need of doing it blind, because of the "beliefs". Measurements won't change their mind because they know full well that there are things that can't be measured
Thanks for the review.Based on above measurements, we have one broken AV Processor. Performance across the board struggles to clear 15 bits yet we have this marketing information from the company
There are indeed subjective opinions that ARC is better than Audyssey to go along with subjective opinions that Anthem is of higher fidelity. The objective data I've seen doesn't support this. I've seen evidence that Audyssey may be better than ARC. One glaring, basically completely broken aspect of ARC is that it does not properly integrate subs with speakers and results in poor response around crossover. This alone makes Audyssey much better objectively. If I'm not mistaken, the newest implementations of ARC on certain models is capable of competent subwoofer integration.Can't that sound superiority owners feel they notice, be a result of the advanced calibration system? A lot of people would buy these over something else to get the ARC calibration system which is considered to be far superior to Audessey. After all one of the main uses (if not thee main) is for HT.
Like you say it's a lot of subjective input from users. The fact that Anthem has a more advanced WebUI with more tweaks than AUD and a more serious mic vs a hockey puck probably contributes too. The AUD app along with people who are versed with REW might be narrowing whatever gap there is there.There are indeed subjective opinions that ARC is better than Audyssey to go along with subjective opinions that Anthem is of higher fidelity. The objective data I've seen doesn't support this. I've seen evidence that Audyssey may be better than ARC. One glaring, basically completely broken aspect of ARC is that it does not properly integrate subs with speakers and results in poor response around crossover. This alone makes Audyssey much better objectively. If I'm not mistaken, the newest implementations of ARC on certain models is capable of competent subwoofer integration.
Some already do (JVC and JBL), JVC had released a product this year, I can only say something about it when I've heard one. If that works, it would be my "endgame" surround solution, and I would then really revert back to stereo for music. Apart from room-related issues, there are relatively few well-made surround music productions, despite surround availability for many years now, and audio in movies is typically not that much about hi-fi IMHO, simply because nobody can tell exactly what would be the "right" sound, say, in a car race...I think there's some good potential in headphone & virtualisation technology if it can be done easy enough...Would also cut down on living room clutter...I think companies should look heavily into developing this kind of technology.
It's a glorious Marantz 2220B synto-amp that I have owned since the 80's and I can't (don't want to) get rid of !!Nice system. What's that old Marantz down there? I had a similar model 20 years ago, and put it up on CL for $20 when one channel died. Given that I got 10 responses in the first minute, maybe I should have asked for more.
Anthem guys in the online forums and Facebook groups are going to be furiously crafting excuses for this. The Anthem users are excessively aloof about their gear, typically posting a one word response, "Anthem", to everything.
One glaring, basically completely broken aspect of ARC is that it does not properly integrate subs with speakers and results in poor response around crossover. This alone makes Audyssey much better objectively. If I'm not mistaken, the newest implementations of ARC on certain models is capable of competent subwoofer integration.