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Anthem AVM 90 Audio Video Preamp/Processor

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Sam Ash

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Beta, yes. I haven’t compared the 70 to the 90 and my journey is detailed above in a few prior posts. I’m not convinced the 90 would be any better for movies but possibly for spatial music and 2CH playback. If given the opportunity I’ll certainly jump at the opportunity to try one out!

A few quick photos this morning before heading to work. Note the unorthodox sub placement, that’s how they measured best and running beta ARC blended them brilliantly.

Lovely interior and I like how you've maintained symmetry. A very neat and clean layout, well done!

From what I can tell it's a 5.2.2 system, is that right? - I have not noticed any rear wall speakers.
 

tparm

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Lovely interior and I like how you've maintained symmetry. A very neat and clean layout, well done!

From what I can tell it's a 5.2.2 system, is that right? - I have not noticed any rear wall speakers.
Thank you, lots of effort and planning has gone in to that space! Especially isolating wiring, 20A home runs, rack install…as all of you know.

5.2.4 (four ceiling speakers). Unfortunately there isn’t a good place for rear surround channels. I did have the 702 f/x speakers in the front wide location and LSiM 703s in the surround location. When I updated amplification I decided to ditch the wides.
 

Vacceo

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Beta, yes. I haven’t compared the 70 to the 90 and my journey is detailed above in a few prior posts. I’m not convinced the 90 would be any better for movies but possibly for spatial music and 2CH playback. If given the opportunity I’ll certainly jump at the opportunity to try one out!

A few quick photos this morning before heading to work. Note the unorthodox sub placement, that’s how they measured best and running beta ARC blended them brilliantly.
I wonder if that improvement will require an extra investment in speakers, because we are talking not that big of a difference here.
 

tparm

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I wonder if that improvement will require an extra investment in speakers, because we are talking not that big of a difference here.
Can you clarify a bit more? Sorry I am not quite understanding your response. Not that big a difference in processors?
 

Vacceo

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I was speculating. The improvement of the AVM90 over the 70 seems to be not that big.

With that in mind, what would you need to actually listen to that improvement? My guess is that if your speakers are not really, really good, chances are you'll hear no difference.
 

Sam Ash

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Thank you, lots of effort and planning has gone in to that space! Especially isolating wiring, 20A home runs, rack install…as all of you know.

5.2.4 (four ceiling speakers). Unfortunately there isn’t a good place for rear surround channels. I did have the 702 f/x speakers in the front wide location and LSiM 703s in the surround location. When I updated amplification I decided to ditch the wides.

No doubt about the fact that loads of effort went into your installation.

Did the wides not add any sonic value?
 

tparm

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No doubt about the fact that loads of effort went into your installation.

Did the wides not add any sonic value?
As far as wides go, sorta-kinda.... Its difficult to see in my photos but my seating area in that room isn't overly large and (I listen to more music than watch movies, etc) in many spatial music tracks the mix could sometimes sound a but artificial (REM Drive). In the AVM I set up another profile for listening to music in Atmos/360 that removed wides from playback and I could have simply left it at that.

In some movies I'd say they did add an element of envelopment, but I then removed them from my speaker set up (before physically removing them), re-ran ARC and found I wasn't missing them in playback. So, to clean up my room a bit and to replace only 9 instead of 11 channels of amplification I decided to not use them. Plus it freed up my two bookshelf speakers for a little 2CH system down the road.

As an aside, it has been somewhat refreshing thinking about the simplicity of a 2CH system compared to all these channels, amps, room correction, etc! Sometimes I wonder what we are doing.... Haha.
 

Vacceo

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With those words you just made me think... I hope Martin Logan or Anthem refresh their Forte amps with earc HDMI.

With a reasonable price, Chromecast capability and a fair bit of power and arc, that would allow us to customize a little two channel system that would smash any soundbar.
 

Sam Ash

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I was speculating. The improvement of the AVM90 over the 70 seems to be not that big.

With that in mind, what would you need to actually listen to that improvement? My guess is that if your speakers are not really, really good, chances are you'll hear no difference.

You are most probably right and that may be the case. However, if someone did have reasonably good speakers, it would be nice to know what difference the 90 makes and if it is enough to justify the price apart from the 4 individual sub interfaces. 90% of the time I watch movies with about 10% or less of music listening.

Has the new beta ARC brought anything new on to the table for multi-sub integration?
 

Sam Ash

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As far as wides go, sorta-kinda.... Its difficult to see in my photos but my seating area in that room isn't overly large and (I listen to more music than watch movies, etc) in many spatial music tracks the mix could sometimes sound a but artificial (REM Drive). In the AVM I set up another profile for listening to music in Atmos/360 that removed wides from playback and I could have simply left it at that.

In some movies I'd say they did add an element of envelopment, but I then removed them from my speaker set up (before physically removing them), re-ran ARC and found I wasn't missing them in playback. So, to clean up my room a bit and to replace only 9 instead of 11 channels of amplification I decided to not use them. Plus it freed up my two bookshelf speakers for a little 2CH system down the road.

As an aside, it has been somewhat refreshing thinking about the simplicity of a 2CH system compared to all these channels, amps, room correction, etc! Sometimes I wonder what we are doing.... Haha.

I’ve sort of resorted to the same solution. I hardly listen to music in my theatre environment except occasionally due to the fact that I do love the result that Dolby Pro Logic IIx provides with 2 channel (Stereo) music. Having said that, I’ve setup a 2.1 system in my living room for casual music listening sessions.
 

Vacceo

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In my case, I use my AVR for music, films and games (which is a subset of film-style sound). My office is the living room, hence the daily use the system gets.

A system that "does it all" is quite a good idea in my use case.
 

Sam Ash

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Would be interesting to know how the 70 or 90 compare to the likes of Trinnov and Storm specifically in terms of fidelity. Obviously we cannot compare control flexibility as the later two are quite advanced in that respect. Furthermore, ARC Genesis is definitely one of the better room correction systems but Trinnov's Optimiser is still the benchmark system.
 

tparm

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Has the new beta ARC brought anything new on to the table for multi-sub integration?
Hey Sam, yes it has. You still have to level match them before running ARC using the Quick Measure feature (super easy), using the discrete sub outs (iow you don't need to sum them to one) ARC Beta auto adjusts for polarity, phase, level, crossovers and distance (time aligns). I used the room compensation and 1 or 2 PEQs in my subs to get my response as flat as possible before running ARC but I am not sure that would have been necessary (matter of fact I am tempted to run it again without those adjustments).
 

Vacceo

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Would be interesting to know how the 70 or 90 compare to the likes of Trinnov and Storm specifically in terms of fidelity. Obviously we cannot compare control flexibility as the later two are quite advanced in that respect. Furthermore, ARC Genesis is definitely one of the better room correction systems but Trinnov's Optimiser is still the benchmark system.
Your post made me thing of a question for Tparm: how long have you been using ARC? I am curious because the system seems to have elvolved and added a ton of functions this last year.

Is it feasible to think it will eventually compare to the big boys such as Lyngdorf or Trinnov?

EQ aside, to me the AVM sounds like a better proposition: it can play vynil (I do have a turntable), it works with videogames and it will pair very well with a purifi amp. :)
 

tparm

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Your post made me thing of a question for Tparm: how long have you been using ARC? I am curious because the system seems to have elvolved and added a ton of functions this last year.

Is it feasible to think it will eventually compare to the big boys such as Lyngdorf or Trinnov?

EQ aside, to me the AVM sounds like a better proposition: it can play vynil (I do have a turntable), it works with videogames and it will pair very well with a purifi amp. :)
Hey sorry it was out of town. I’ve been using Genesis for about 6 months and yes there has been continual improvement. Good question on Trinnov and Lyngdorf, though for me at some point the law of diminishing returns takes over. I’m not sure I could justify the added cost of those units. At some point I see myself spending a fair amount on a dedicated 2CH system rather than more on my multichannel rig.
 

Vacceo

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Hey sorry it was out of town. I’ve been using Genesis for about 6 months and yes there has been continual improvement. Good question on Trinnov and Lyngdorf, though for me at some point the law of diminishing returns takes over. I’m not sure I could justify the added cost of those units. At some point I see myself spending a fair amount on a dedicated 2CH system rather than more on my multichannel rig.
I have personally experienced systems running on Audyssey and Dirac, and all things considered, Arc seems to be at least as capable as them, perhaps closer to Dirac than to Audyssey. I´m mentioning those two because the prices on the gear are relatively close; to me, Lyngdorff and Trinnov are like Magico speakers: I know they exist but that´s it.

The intended use in my case will be a "do it all" system: 2 channel (with vynil), cd reproduction, games and films. Since I do not have the room for specialized rigs, I´d rather spend a bit more on a jack of all trades even if there are better options on particular uses.

In fact, I wonder if it´s better to stay away from Lyngdorff or Trinnov and extending the budget towars better speakers. Reading this forums, this option seems to be the most rational.
 

Vacceo

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I think Anthem claims a SINAD of 115 db, which is outstanding for a processor.
 

AngryMike

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I‘m stuck at finding the right Power Amp. I have my AVM 90 here tomorrow but can‘t use it. Anthem MCA Gen 2 Power Amps or Apollon Purifi…… can someone help me out, making the right decision?
 
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