Anthem AVM60 Review (AV Processor)

[Sal1950]

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.

Hoping for the best, D-M has been showing some positive signs.
Keep the pressure on Amir

 

[RichB]

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.

I suppose that means, there was some splainin to do

- Rich

 

[Soikki]

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.

AVM 60 has the same "direct option"

 

[amirm]

AVM 70 review is posted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/anthem-avm70-review-av-processor.27316/

 

[pras1011]

So was the avm60 a faulty unit?

 

[ash1980]

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/

This is really helpful. Is there a similar review for MRX 1140 or 740?

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

This is really helpful. Is there a similar review for MRX 1140 or 740?

Look up recent Audioholics review. Amir has also tested 1140.

 

[ArturoKiwi]

Look up recent Audioholics review. Amir has also tested 1140.

Are you sure Amirm tested the MRX1140?
Could you please post the link?

 

[ash1980]

Are you sure Amirm tested the MRX1140?
Could you please post the link?

Audioholics Measurements and review of Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs

Audioholics just published their measurements and review of the Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs. I recently purchased the MRX1140 for my HT over the NADT778. I've been very happy with the unit and nice to see my experience correlates with the measurements. :)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ArturoKiwi]

Audioholics Measurements and review of Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs

Audioholics just published their measurements and review of the Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs. I recently purchased the MRX1140 for my HT over the NADT778. I've been very happy with the unit and nice to see my experience correlates with the measurements. :)...

www.audiosciencereview.com

But these are measurements from Audioholics, not from Amirm. Or am I wrong?

 

[ash1980]

But these are measurements from Audioholics, not from Amirm. Or am I wrong?

Sorry, I am not sure who is Amirm. But this is the review that they did.

 

[symphara]

Sorry, I am not sure who is Amirm. But this is the review that they did.

He is the owner of this forum.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Are you sure Amirm tested the MRX1140?
Could you please post the link?

You're right. 1120.

 

[ArturoKiwi]

You're right. 1120.

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

Edit: Sorry, Amirm tested the Avm70 that results 5db better then avm60 and 2db better than mrx1120

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

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

Edit: Sorry, Amirm tested the Avm70 that results 5db better then avm60 and 2db better than mrx1120

Audioholics 1140 review is thorough and positive. It's room correction is time tested. Tech support is superb.