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Anthem AVM60 Review (AV Processor)

Krobar

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Interested to see these as well. Last week Secrets of HT and HF posted their review with measurements so we have at least some objective measures out there on the AVM70.

@amirm Also wondering, what happened with the AVM70 review?
 

Spocko

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I don't understand why Anthem leaves out Auro3D - this is a premium brand and Auro3D/Auromatic upmixing is arguably the best at this, why not charge a little more for the Auro license?
 

respice finem

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They've probably calculated the cost of implementing it against the expected user base and decided against.

I don't have any statistics, but among the not-so-few people I know, who have home cinema systems, actually no one has Auro3D implemented. Most have either fancy "surround" soundbars or mostly oldish 5.1 or 7.1 upgraded to 5.1.2. A few use their AVR for stereo, for HDMI connectivity and room correction.
 

Golfx

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I use Auro 3d and 2d for music. Produces a nice wall of music in 2d and inclusive bubble in 3d which is especially nice with binaural recordings.
 

Sal1950

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I don't understand why Anthem leaves out Auro3D - this is a premium brand and Auro3D/Auromatic upmixing is arguably the best at this, why not charge a little more for the Auro license?
That is a good question since most everyone else has been getting onboard. My Marantz 7703 required a $200 downloadable firmware upgrade but from the 7704 on, it was included for free. And I just read about another company now including it in their more upscale units.
OTOH, you still won't find a Auro encoded movie anywhere in the US?
A strange kettle of fish?
 

nathan

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I don't understand why Anthem leaves out Auro3D - this is a premium brand and Auro3D/Auromatic upmixing is arguably the best at this, why not charge a little more for the Auro license?

Id guess it’s a combo of smaller company, limited resources, prioritizing other stuff which is in itself still incomplete (eg ARC phase and distance features). They are still behind schedule on getting their advertised features working and into users hands.
 

Sal1950

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Spocko

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That is a good question since most everyone else has been getting onboard. My Marantz 7703 required a $200 downloadable firmware upgrade but from the 7704 on, it was included for free. And I just read about another company now including it in their more upscale units.
OTOH, you still won't find a Auro encoded movie anywhere in the US?
A strange kettle of fish?
Very true - Auro3D's value is in its upmixing of badly recorded Atmos movies or older 5.1 mixes or mono TV mixes or just stereo - this means that it will get more use than Atmos processing of great native Atmos mixes (which are a handful at best).
 

respice finem

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I admittedly don't have it, or know a lot about it - apart of the different speaker setup it requires. So I'm kind of "neutral" here. But, upmixing is more or less a guess, it "makes" channels that don't exist in the source, or "improves" existing ones, based on what data, if it's stereo or "a badly recorded Atmos movie"? In the latter case, how does it distinguish a "badly recorded" one from a good one? Call me paranoid, but I smell marketing poetry here.

One can make alcohol from potatoes, but not potatoes from alcohol ;)
 
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Krobar

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I admittedly don't have it, or know a lot about it - apart of the different speaker setup it requires. So I'm kind of "neutral" here. But, upmixing is more or less a guess, it "makes" channels that don't exist in the source, or "improves" existing ones, based on what data, if it's stereo or "a badly recorded Atmos movie"? In the latter case, how does it distinguish a "badly recorded" one from a good one? Call me paranoid, but I smell marketing poetry here.

One can make alcohol from potatoes, but not potatoes from alcohol ;)

Its due to how the Auro upmixer works. Dolby and DTS upmixers are more advanced and look for spatial cues in the music to determine what sounds to put where. Auro is much simpler in that is adds an adjustable amount of echo mainly upmixes from pure channel information and adds a lower mid-bass boost effect. For most poor mixes the spatial info just does not seem to work well with DTS/Dolby but Auro's simpler approach does work OK. Auro is not a better upmixer at all IMHO but it is a nice alternative option to have for certain content.
 

EB1000

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Its due to how the Auro upmixer works. Dolby and DTS upmixers are more advanced and look for spatial cues in the music to determine what sounds to put where. Auro is much simpler in that is adds an adjustable amount of echo mainly upmixes from pure channel information and adds a lower mid-bass boost effect. For most poor mixes the spatial info just does not seem to work well with DTS/Dolby but Auro's simpler approach does work OK. Auro is not a better upmixer at all IMHO but it is a nice alternative option to have for certain content.


I use Auro 3D for any 5.1 or 7.1 track and sometimes for two channel music. I never use it fr two-channel movies, as it does a terrible surround steering job. For two channel movies, better use DTS Neural X or DSU.
 

EB1000

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I remember Amir mentioned his correspondence with Anthem engineers regarding the measurements results, but I can't seem to find it here. I wonder what Anthem had to say about their flagship product deviation from specs?
 

ex audiophile

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I remember Amir mentioned his correspondence with Anthem engineers regarding the measurements results, but I can't seem to find it here. I wonder what Anthem had to say about their flagship product deviation from specs?
I don't believe there has been any news since the initial review; I am anxious to hear about the AVM 60 and AVM 70 which I believe is in for review.
 
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