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Anthem AVM60 Review (AV Processor)

amirm said:
Quick update. I have measured the AVM70 and am waiting for sign off from Anthem. They are responsive in email now although quite busy. I am hoping to get the go ahead tomorrow or by the end of the week at the latest.
Click to expand...
Hoping for the best, D-M has been showing some positive signs.
Keep the pressure on Amir
 
amirm said:
Quick update. I have measured the AVM70 and am waiting for sign off from Anthem. They are responsive in email now although quite busy. I am hoping to get the go ahead tomorrow or by the end of the week at the latest.
Click to expand...

I suppose that means, there was some splainin to do :p

- Rich
 
tparm said:
Hey @amirm is this still forthcoming? Interesting to find the AVM 70 does have a direct (non-digitized) OPTION for their analog input. In the set up menu you have to choose "no" for convert analog otherwise the input is digitized. I just find that interesting and in case that wasn't brought up in discussions with Anthem (which now that I think about it I'm sure it was) I thought I'd mention it. It is Anthem's "pure direct" if you will. Thanks and looking forward to it.
Click to expand...
AVM 60 has the same "direct option"
 
amirm said:
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Anthem AVM60 Home Theater Audio/Video Processor (AVP) with balanced output. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3,000.

The design is typical of Anthem:

View attachment 110978

Menus were low resolution but speedy which I appreciated.

Back panel shows balanced outputs which is what I used exclusively for my testing:
View attachment 110979

For testing, I reset the unit to factory. I usually test HDMI and Toslink/Coax. Here, no matter what I did, I could not get the unit to output anything when using either Toslink or Coax. It would recognize those inputs and tell me it was receiving PCM signal but the output was basically noise. Don't know if this is a bug or a defect in this sample.

Anthem AVM60 Measurements
As usual we start with feeding the unit over HDMI and measure what comes out of front left and right when adjusted for 4 volts (for balanced outputs):
View attachment 110981

Well, this is not very good. We can't even clear the 16 bit mark which would require SINAD to be at least 96 dB. There are a lot of distortion and spurious tones. As such ranking is even worse than one of the previous Anthem AVRs we have tested, the MRX1120:

View attachment 110982

Dynamic range is a letdown as well:

View attachment 110983

Output drive is very good though:
View attachment 110984

Intermodulation distortion versus level shows very high residual noise:
View attachment 110985

Linearity shows that there is no ability to output 24 bits and that some kind of truncation to 16 bit is occurring:
View attachment 110986

Distortion versus frequency also showed high levels of unwanted signals:
View attachment 110987

A wideband FFT shows all the spurious tones causing the above:
View attachment 110988

Jitter was really bad:

View attachment 110989

At this point I thought maybe my system is truncating bits to 16 bits for it gets to AVM60 which can happen with HDMI output but without other inputs working, I could not verify if this was occurring. As I was playing with the unit, the real source of problems popped out. I had the input selected as HDMI but no audio signal being output. This was the FFT spectrum:

View attachment 110990

Notice how there is a 1 kHz tone generated internally together its harmonic entourage! With this as the baseline, no wonder all of our tests show poor performance. There is some interference to the tune of 1 kHz (e.g. some CPU timer) creating noise that is bleeding into the output of the DAC.

Conclusions
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:
View attachment 110995

We don't have anything like that here. Assuming that "A/D" is meant to be "D/A," the 106 dB must be some DAC chip spec, not actual system.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Anthem AVP60 Processor.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Click to expand...
This is really helpful. Is there a similar review for MRX 1140 or 740?
 
Alice of Old Vincennes said:
You're right. 1120.
Click to expand...
Both mrx1120 and avm60 had a good reviews from amirm, but now everyone told me to not consider them if I found a used one because avm70 and mrx1140 are far better.
But there aren't serious reviews of them and the cost is a lot expensive :D

Edit: Sorry, Amirm tested the Avm70 that results 5db better then avm60 and 2db better than mrx1120
 
Last edited:
ArturoKiwi said:
Both mrx1120 and avm60 had a good reviews from amirm, but now everyone told me to not consider them if I found a used one because avm70 and mrx1140 are far better.
But there aren't serious reviews of them and the cost is a lot expensive :D

Edit: Sorry, Amirm tested the Avm70 that results 5db better then avm60 and 2db better than mrx1120
Click to expand...
Audioholics 1140 review is thorough and positive. It's room correction is time tested. Tech support is superb.
 
amirm said:
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Anthem AVM60 Home Theater Audio/Video Processor (AVP) with balanced output. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3,000.

The design is typical of Anthem:

View attachment 110978

Menus were low resolution but speedy which I appreciated.

Back panel shows balanced outputs which is what I used exclusively for my testing:
View attachment 110979

For testing, I reset the unit to factory. I usually test HDMI and Toslink/Coax. Here, no matter what I did, I could not get the unit to output anything when using either Toslink or Coax. It would recognize those inputs and tell me it was receiving PCM signal but the output was basically noise. Don't know if this is a bug or a defect in this sample.

Anthem AVM60 Measurements
As usual we start with feeding the unit over HDMI and measure what comes out of front left and right when adjusted for 4 volts (for balanced outputs):
View attachment 110981

Well, this is not very good. We can't even clear the 16 bit mark which would require SINAD to be at least 96 dB. There are a lot of distortion and spurious tones. As such ranking is even worse than one of the previous Anthem AVRs we have tested, the MRX1120:

View attachment 110982

Dynamic range is a letdown as well:

View attachment 110983

Output drive is very good though:
View attachment 110984

Intermodulation distortion versus level shows very high residual noise:
View attachment 110985

Linearity shows that there is no ability to output 24 bits and that some kind of truncation to 16 bit is occurring:
View attachment 110986

Distortion versus frequency also showed high levels of unwanted signals:
View attachment 110987

A wideband FFT shows all the spurious tones causing the above:
View attachment 110988

Jitter was really bad:

View attachment 110989

At this point I thought maybe my system is truncating bits to 16 bits for it gets to AVM60 which can happen with HDMI output but without other inputs working, I could not verify if this was occurring. As I was playing with the unit, the real source of problems popped out. I had the input selected as HDMI but no audio signal being output. This was the FFT spectrum:

View attachment 110990

Notice how there is a 1 kHz tone generated internally together its harmonic entourage! With this as the baseline, no wonder all of our tests show poor performance. There is some interference to the tune of 1 kHz (e.g. some CPU timer) creating noise that is bleeding into the output of the DAC.

Conclusions
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:
View attachment 110995

We don't have anything like that here. Assuming that "A/D" is meant to be "D/A," the 106 dB must be some DAC chip spec, not actual system.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Anthem AVP60 Processor.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Click to expand...

With due respect, I find this review perplexing on few reasons:
  1. Based on the measurements, you said you had "one broken AV Processor". After finding out this, did you try to measure another AV processor to make sure that the one you loaned from a member to measure was in deed broken?
  2. Was the processor you loaned from the member brand new and if not how long the member had owned and used the unit? Would this had an impact on the outcome of your measurements?
  3. It is noted that AVM 60 has been around since around 2015/16. But you reviewed it in February 2021. This is 5 years after it became available. Your review was also made when the AVM 70 was due to be made available to the public. In fact you you positively reviewed the AVM 70 in October 2021. This was few months after you negatively reviewed the AVM 60 which has been around for several years. Was this a coincidence?
  4. The AVM 70 was sent to you by the company to review. But they couldn't send you the AVM 60 even after you found out that the one you "loaned" from a member was "broken".
I find this pattern very unusual and concerning. What does this review mean than when it comes to audio science reviews?
 
Diamata said:
With due respect, I find this review perplexing on few reasons:
  1. Based on the measurements, you said you had "one broken AV Processor". After finding out this, did you try to measure another AV processor to make sure that the one you loaned from a member to measure was in deed broken?
  2. Was the processor you loaned from the member brand new and if not how long the member had owned and used the unit? Would this had an impact on the outcome of your measurements?
  3. It is noted that AVM 60 has been around since around 2015/16. But you reviewed it in February 2021. This is 5 years after it became available. Your review was also made when the AVM 70 was due to be made available to the public. In fact you you positively reviewed the AVM 70 in October 2021. This was few months after you negatively reviewed the AVM 60 which has been around for several years. Was this a coincidence?
  4. The AVM 70 was sent to you by the company to review. But they couldn't send you the AVM 60 even after you found out that the one you "loaned" from a member was "broken".
I find this pattern very unusual and concerning. What does this review mean than when it comes to audio science reviews?
Click to expand...

I don't think Amir meant the unit was physically or electrically broken, he seemed to use the term only because of the measured performance not as good as what he expected, for example, a little worse than the AVR, MRX1120's test results.

There is no need to be concerned if you compared the measurements done by two other reviewers, S&V, and HTHF, for example, the SINAD measured by both were consistent with Amir's.
 
Exactly.

“Broken” is a subjective engineering colloquialism in this context meaning “poorly designed or poorly implemented” but not actually performing in a way unintended by the manufacturer.

English is funny that way.

Though I agree with the OPs implication that it is a confusing way to describe disappointment with a device that is in working order but at the same time also not representing anything close to state of the art performance.
 
Last edited:
peng said:
I don't think Amir meant the unit was physically or electrically broken, he seemed to use the term only because of the measured performance not as good as what he expected, for example, a little worse than the AVR, MRX1120's test results.

There is no need to be concerned if you compared the measurements done by two other reviewers, S&V, and HTHF, for example, the SINAD measured by both were consistent with Amir's.
Click to expand...

It would have much been better if he explained himself what exactly he meant by having "one broken AV Processor" than trying to think what he meant.
 
Diamata said:
It would have much been better if he explained himself what exactly he meant by having "one broken AV Processor" than trying to think what he meant.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I have read most if not all of his reviews since I joined ASR, so I probably know his style a little better.
 
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