Anthem AVM60 Review (AV Processor)

[respice finem]

...I do work with a nearfield setup though, so that's probably the reason why power isn't an issue, even when driving 4 speakers.

In my case, 5.1.2 system with a slim AVR (Marantz NR1608), also nearfield-like conditions, 2m stereo triangle. Power-wise, a medium sized active sub helps a lot (NuLine AW-600), so I can play up to reference level (-0dB) without any issues, apart from opening a door of an old Italian cupboard that would start to resonate if I didn't. Such is life (without a dedicated listening room).

 

[thebabyparrot]

Another one bites the dust.

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

apart from opening a door of an old Italian cupboard that would start to resonate

Haha

I'd take your cupboard over my pitchfork waving neighbor any day.
I have to max it out at ~90dB (Z) and even then only for short periods. ._.

 

[amirm]

So, isn't this is why sinad kind of sucks? It could be noise, it could be distortion. If it's noise, then it's bad. But if it's distortion, most speakers distort notably more then that, do they not?

What do you think the rest of measurements are for?

 

[vlad335]

I have not reviewed any $50,000 amps. If you are speaking of amps I own, I am not recommending them to anyone. For now though, these are stereophile measurements of said amp:

That is about 0.004% which translates into a SINAD of 88 dB. That is 10 dB better than average of some 120 amplifiers. And it produces 1 killowatt of power. I have yet to test any amp that produces 1 killiwatt of power let alone doing it superbly.

The Anthem AVM60 on the other hand is well below average performer for AVRs and AVPs. Its noise and distortion will be additive to anything downstream. To have less than 0.5 dB effect on the amp above, it would need to have a SINAD of 98 dB which it does not have:

Anyone buying this $3,000 processor would be in the market for state of the art amplification from Purifi to Hypex and Benchmark. For those platforms, you better have SINAD approaching 120 dB, not 91.

So we have our bearings right, thank you very much.

I wish I could like this post 100 times instead of just once.

 

[amirm]

There was a request to test the analog input. Here it is with both RCA and XLR Outs:

As indicated, you take a big hit (mostly in distortion) when going analog. However, the spectrum is much cleaner which indicates noise bleeding from HDMI path when using digital.

 

[amirm]

Another request was for RCA output. Here is the dashboard:

Pretty messy. But when I measure dynamic range, RCA out is better and actually matches their spec!

You can actually see the noise floor going down in the FFT above. Why this is the case, your guess is as good as mine! You buy a high-end processor to get balanced output and seemingly its unbalanced output is lower noise.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

I can't believe companies still layout these traces incorrectly:

This PCB is identical to the HDMI switch board that you made the same complaint about in the MXR 520 teardown. Indeed it seems that Anthem use this same PCB right across their range.
It would be really interesting to see the lower down PCBs. There don't seem to be that many in these AVRs. There is a top board (with daughter board) for HDMI, next down would appear to be the audio board, and below that either the amplifier board or the balanced output board. Add to that the front panel and a network card (with RF daughter board), and you are done minus odd connecting PCBs.
I have no doubt that in this beast, the amplifier board is simply replaced with balanced output drivers, and accepts exactly the same line level input cable that the amplifier board takes. It will be taking the unbalanced feed, and feeding it to some simple balanced line drivers, probably little more than a couple of op-amps. Any pretence that the balanced output from the DACs makes its way to the balanced output is going to be fantasy.

What is more curious is that the analog board in the MXR 520 appears to also be identical to the one in the AVM 60. It even has the letters "AVM 60" on it, denoting where some parts are omitted when the PCB is used in the AVM 60. So, the AVM 60 may well be near identical in internals to a product that sells for half the price. Of course software licensing will be different. And this is the elephant in the room when it comes to fair and reasonable prices for AVRs. AVM 60 gets a more complete network interface as well.

I am more than a bit suspicious that the HDMI and likely all the digital processing design is outsourced. It is telling that the big board down the bottom emblazoned with "Anthem" is the only visible sign on any board of the brand name. Their whole range would appear to have been just one design, with channels disabled and amplifier outputs changed to meet the market price point, and no doubt various software options enabled. For a small company this probably is the only way to make things work.

Buyers of electronic test equipment will be familiar with the likes of Rigol and Siglent that offer upgrades that are nothing but an enabling key that unlock things like higher bandwidth and other nice features. Anthem could just about do that. Market may not like it.

 

[ace_xp2]

What do you think the rest of measurements are for?

That's what I'm saying though, those two numbers may as well be the names of the two pieces you're both talking about, because those sinad numbers just don't have enough information to tell us whether they're good or bad, right? As in, a sinad that high largely created from distortion rather then noise will still be far less then a speaker outputs. Unless there are speakers with lower distortion then that? I don't think I've seen any that good here yet, but maybe I missed them.

 

[bigx5murf]

Does it occur or change when the avm is off? Power amp on. Then switch on avm, does it change?

No, goes away soon as the avm20 is turned off. My amp is an anthem pva7. There's no hiss if I use a different preamp. I've tried the avm20 on a Yamaha mx800, the hiss is present with that combo as well.

 

[Krobar]

Another request was for RCA output. Here is the dashboard:

View attachment 111198

Pretty messy. But when I measure dynamic range, RCA out is better and actually matches their spec!

View attachment 111199

You can actually see the noise floor going down in the FFT above. Why this is the case, your guess is as good as mine! You buy a high-end processor to get balanced output and seemingly its unbalanced output is lower noise.

Thank you for running the RCA tests.

AFAIK they chip convert RCA to XLR and even if this circuit is OK quality it still degrades output quality. As far as I can tell doing this allows them to use the exact same DAC board for the receivers and processors and just swap the amp board for an XLR board in the processor.

 

[TimoJ]

I am more than a bit suspicious that the HDMI and likely all the digital processing design is outsourced.

For some reason I'm getting a strong Tonewinner feeling from those red boards, same also with the newer AVM70/90 models.

 

[andymok]

I wonder what would an old Dolby cinema processor looks like

 

[DrDardis]

@amirm The linearity truncation is weird. I know it is obvious, but any of that Dolby volume leveling nonsense switched on in the settings by default? Could that explain it? Thanks for the review!

 

[capitanharlock]

Sadly it seems that all the AV processors on the market measure terribly.
It's unacceptable for processors that costs more than 3k $.
I guess it's a result of years of high-end bullshits.

 

[beagleman]

Same here.
I use a Yamaha RX-V 377, their entry level model and it cost me a whopping 270 bucks.
It's a wee bit noisy when I go past -20dB on the display but otherwise the sound is fine.
I do work with a nearfield setup though, so that's probably the reason why power isn't an issue, even when driving 4 speakers.

I have a RX_V 373,in a TV room, but essentially the same receiver as yours, but a few years older.

I avoided AVRs in General, reading just how horrible they sound, on several audiophile forums.

After hearing this unit at a friends, I was perplexed as none of the shortcomings were really audible. Im sure it measures quite average/mediocre, but when listening, it sounds absolutely fine to me. Even with 2 channel music, using a sub, it has clarity, clean and flat response, and no noise or distortion that "Stands out" when listening. It is a bit limited in overall power, probably not the best for demanding 4 ohm speakser, but it is the lowest priced unit they make.....I mean, it far exceeded what I expected.

 

[peng]

Where Audyssey completely failed in my case is the bass modes (33 Hz and multiples). After Audyssey those modes were only minimally better. Trying to manually EQ produced strange effects in midrange (such an L-shaped room is terrible acoustically...). I ended up with the "AVR version" of the Antimode box (8033 s-II) between the AVR's sub out and the sub. I know its sibling wasn't good in terms of SINAD, but I gave the smaller one a try (in low freq. noise and distortion are less audible anyway). The procedure is, find the place where the modal maximum is (in my case the corners of the L, so I took the one in the middle), place your sub there and run the Antimode's EQ (warning extreme levels) and then Audyssey (to adjust for the additional delay by the Antimode). The bass is quite nice now, with the modes almost completely gone, stupidly I can't find the graphs anymore on the German site where I had dropped them...
tl, dr: I wouldn't take Audyssey (at least not the XT variant) next time I buy an AVR. Either the Antimode 8033 s-II box, or the more advanced XT32. It would be interesting to see a comparison test of current "room correction" systems in the same test room (there are many tests around but with different rooms, it's always apples vs. oranges).

I don't know anything about the Antimode box but using XT32/SubEQHT, the App&Rat, and two subs, I am confident you will get very good results. I could get it flat 20-120 Hz within +/- 1.2 to 2 dB with no smoothing, others on my user thread managed to get very good results too. Even average over 6-9 positions, 8 to 10 inches between positions, the curve remained very flat. Once that's achieved it isn't hard to shape it to the individual's preference, using the App/Rat. May be XT is really much less capable?

 

[beagleman]

Ok so this processor doesn't have SOTA measured performance, but there are a lot of folks proclaiming that this unit is complete and utter garbage and broken, while folks have $50,000 pair of Mark Levinson amps with worse SINAD, and that's completely fine, and audiophile, and high fidelity.

Seriously, people need to get a grip. Certainly, there's a good argument for using a Denon 3700, 6700, or 8500 over this. But .003% SINAD is honestly better than the majority of exorbitantly expensive audiophile monoblock amps that no one seems too concerned about.

Having said that, I agree that this unit does not achieve excellence in measured performance compared to equal and lower priced alternatives in the market place. It would get a hard pass from me. But certainly not due to any audibility issues.

As I now see it, I think it becomes a difference between some saying, "It measures so bad it just has to be audible and horrible" versus, "I have heard it and it is ACTUALLY audibly bad before I saw the test results"


I see a "Bit" of self fulling prophesy, in that almost instantly something is horrible AFTER reading over the measurements, but not horrible to those that own it or have not seen the measurements.

I am not certain, the bad measurements equate to bad sound, as easily as some are slagging this unit and others.

But like you, I TRULY value the measurements a lot, and love what is going on and the work done here!!
I love to see things that are low priced measure great and so on, but just feel maybe audibility is being sacrificed a bit.

 

[peng]

There was a request to test the analog input. Here it is with both RCA and XLR Outs:

View attachment 111196

View attachment 111197

As indicated, you take a big hit (mostly in distortion) when going analog. However, the spectrum is much cleaner which indicates noise bleeding from HDMI path when using digital.

I didn't ask for it, but thank you very much, and to whoever requested the tests too. The results are consistent with what I saw on hometheaterhifi.com, that THD+N was much higher using analog input.

It should be very close or similar with or without the DAC in the chain right? Would it be a noise issue, that somehow there are are some noisy components in the pure analog path, such as switches, relays etc.?

 

[respice finem]

So, isn't this is why sinad kind of sucks? It could be noise, it could be distortion. If it's noise, then it's bad. But if it's distortion, most speakers distort notably more then that, do they not?

They do, but one "sin" adds to another. Like If I drank too much already, the last 50g vodka may not be much at all, but make the difference between walking and lying on the sidewalk