Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

[ChrisB1224]

Really, so one can upgrade their AVM50, 60, to their current 8K board?

I'm really not sure. I know the 70 and 90 are modular in that way, but I don't know about other models

 

[peng]

I'm really not sure. I know the 70 and 90 are modular in that way, but I don't know about other models

Yeah, I know the 70 can be upgraded, just a little surprised to read your "no matter how old..", may be you meant as long as it is the 70 or 90, it can be 10 years old, it can still be upgraded? If that's the case, then I guess it will ultimately still depend on whether they will discontinue the current 8K boards, or hopefully whichever 8K board that replaces the current one can still be used, but that's in the future, so who we'll never know, until such time. I am not a gamer, so I don't want to upgrade it now, in case by the time 8K contents become norm, the current version may be obsolete, not compatible etc.. It happened before with my 4K Marantz AV8801, so not again.

 

[ChrisB1224]

Yeah, I know the 70 can be upgraded, just a little surprised to read your "no matter how old..", may be you meant as long as it is the 70 or 90, it can be 10 years old, it can still be upgraded? If that's the case, then I guess it will ultimately still depend on whether they will discontinue the current 8K boards, or hopefully whichever 8K board that replaces the current one can still be used, but that's in the future, so who we'll never know, until such time. I am not a gamer, so I don't want to upgrade it now, in case by the time 8K contents become norm, the current version may be obsolete, not compatible etc.. It happened before with my 4K Marantz AV8801, so not again.

I just meant they use the modularity of the hdmi board as a selling point. I assumed you would be able to put their new 8k board in any previous model anthem processor, but if thats not true then I am mistaken and it removes what I viewed as an advantage over the av10.

 

[ban25]

I just meant they use the modularity of the hdmi board as a selling point. I assumed you would be able to put their new 8k board in any previous model anthem processor, but if thats not true then I am mistaken and it removes what I viewed as an advantage over the av10.

It's impossible to know what additional requirements future HDMI standards will impose on the AVP's architecture. Perhaps there will be a bandwidth limitation in the expansion bus used by the HDMI board, or a processing/performance limitation. Or Anthem may change their internal architecture in the future and not see the benefit of designing and manufacturing multiple variants of "HDMI 2.2" boards. With modularity comes a possibility of upgrades, not a guarantee.

 

[ChrisB1224]

It's impossible to know what additional requirements future HDMI standards will impose on the AVP's architecture. Perhaps there will be a bandwidth limitation in the expansion bus used by the HDMI board, or a processing/performance limitation. Or Anthem may change their internal architecture in the future and not see the benefit of designing and manufacturing multiple variants of "HDMI 2.2" boards. With modularity comes a possibility of upgrades, not a guarantee.

Understood and appreciated

 

[Descartes]

Anyone has bought the Anthem AVM 90, I am curious as to your opinions!

 

[peng]

If I were to spend that much, I would likely go with the Marantz AV10, now that it is available and we know more about it. The Anthem has better dac chips but that's just one consideration.

 

[Descartes]

If I were to spend that much, I would likely go with the Marantz AV10, now that it is available and we know more about it. The Anthem has better dac chips but that's just one consideration.

Any measurements yet in the Marantz AV10? Also ARC Genesis is extremely easy to use where as DIRAC a lot more we complicated!

 

[ChrisB1224]

If I were to spend that much, I would likely go with the Marantz AV10, now that it is available and we know more about it. The Anthem has better dac chips but that's just one consideration.

Strongly considering it. Not having dynamic eq would feel unfamiliar at this point.dirac vs arc..I don't know. I can get the av10 for 6200. Haven't seen what kind of quote I can get on the 90 yet, but I should know soon

 

[peng]

Strongly considering it. Not having dynamic eq would feel unfamiliar at this point.dirac vs arc..I don't know. I can get the av10 for 6200. Haven't seen what kind of quote I can get on the 90 yet, but I should know soon

Ar this point, I actually prefer Audyssey as I can get very satisfactory results using the app. The auto phase thing sounds like a good concept but in the end it is the results that counts. Same for DLBC, I would like to see more evidence that it is effective. We need more users to post their own actual measurements.

I think AV10 for $6,000 would be a good price vs Anthem's.

 

[ban25]

Ar this point, I actually prefer Audyssey as I can get very satisfactory results using the app. The auto phase thing sounds like a good concept but in the end it is the results that counts. Same for DLBC, I would like to see more evidence that it is effective. We need more users to post their own actual measurements.

I think AV10 for $6,000 would be a good price vs Anthem's.

I'm on the list for an AV10 at the moment and hope to have one within the next month. I'm also very pleased with the performance of Audyssey and the MultEQ-X Windows app on my X3700H. I will probably give Dirac Live a try on a 2nd preset once the AV10 gets here, but I strongly suspect I will stay with Audyssey until at least DLBC arrives.

 

[ChrisB1224]

I'm on the list for an AV10 at the moment and hope to have one within the next month. I'm also very pleased with the performance of Audyssey and the MultEQ-X Windows app on my X3700H. I will probably give Dirac Live a try on a 2nd preset once the AV10 gets here, but I strongly suspect I will stay with Audyssey until at least DLBC arrives.

Denon/marantz won't have dirac until March. The only thing for certain is dirac live. DLBC is listed as a hopeful. I'd just be happy to not need to do the sub distance tweak! I'm very familiar with rew and MultEQ-X though, and you can get great results which is what matters at the end of the day.
The AV8805 had a near 5 year run as the top dog. Let's hope the AV10 has a similar run, and we have options for DLBC, active room treatment, or whatever other goodies come along in the next couple years. Not counting on it, but I hope they surprise me.

I have been debating and going back and forth between 2 processors for days. I was leaning marantz. When I received a fair quote for the av10, and not a great price on the avm 90, I paid a deposit for my guy to order the marantz. No more debating. I've been using preouts on a denon for a while, so this should be a nice change.

The amp10 looks very cool as well. I think they're using ice modules.
I just ordered another 8 channel amp from buckeye, with 3x 502s and 1x 252. I have an 8 channel 4x252 amp I got in early 2021 that was one of his earlier models. He's since added input boards and other options, so along with the new amp, I'm getting an upgrade kit for the older one. That'll be a new case with the input board, both cases anodized bronze..it should all match up nicely. For thousands less, and much more power than the Amp10. I really wanted that input board though. The auto on/off and the soft start features are necessary. Ncores love to say hello when powered on with a little pop, in my experience. Also the amp can get pretty hot. I have an ac infinity on it, but auto on/off will make the modules run much cooler.

Sorry for the rant. Pretty stoked. Won't get the amp for a couple months probably, but I've got one that'll hold down the fort in the meantime

 

[dlaloum]

Denon/marantz won't have dirac until March. The only thing for certain is dirac live. DLBC is listed as a hopeful. I'd just be happy to not need to do the sub distance tweak! I'm very familiar with rew and MultEQ-X though, and you can get great results which is what matters at the end of the day.
The AV8805 had a near 5 year run as the top dog. Let's hope the AV10 has a similar run, and we have options for DLBC, active room treatment, or whatever other goodies come along in the next couple years. Not counting on it, but I hope they surprise me.

I have been debating and going back and forth between 2 processors for days. I was leaning marantz. When I received a fair quote for the av10, and not a great price on the avm 90, I paid a deposit for my guy to order the marantz. No more debating. I've been using preouts on a denon for a while, so this should be a nice change.

The amp10 looks very cool as well. I think they're using ice modules.
I just ordered another 8 channel amp from buckeye, with 3x 502s and 1x 252. I have an 8 channel 4x252 amp I got in early 2021 that was one of his earlier models. He's since added input boards and other options, so along with the new amp, I'm getting an upgrade kit for the older one. That'll be a new case with the input board, both cases anodized bronze..it should all match up nicely. For thousands less, and much more power than the Amp10. I really wanted that input board though. The auto on/off and the soft start features are necessary. Ncores love to say hello when powered on with a little pop, in my experience. Also the amp can get pretty hot. I have an ac infinity on it, but auto on/off will make the modules run much cooler.

Sorry for the rant. Pretty stoked. Won't get the amp for a couple months probably, but I've got one that'll hold down the fort in the meantime

D&M stated that they were planning on having DLBC in early 2024...

Given current developments and Dirac statements, I would think it a fairly good bet, that the early 2024 release will include DLBC and DL-ART.... although I expect DLBC will be more economical than DL-ART (and DL-ART basically includes DLBC....)

The additional cost of the Dirac licences will not be a big deal for buyers of the AV10... but for more mainstream market segments (X3800...) the cost of DL-ART would raise it up an entire market category.... There may well be an opportunity in there for a competitor to bundle DL-ART with their AVR at a mid-market price.... (Onkyo?)

 

[ban25]

The amp10 looks very cool as well. I think they're using ice modules.
I just ordered another 8 channel amp from buckeye, with 3x 502s and 1x 252. I have an 8 channel 4x252 amp I got in early 2021 that was one of his earlier models. He's since added input boards and other options, so along with the new amp, I'm getting an upgrade kit for the older one. That'll be a new case with the input board, both cases anodized bronze..it should all match up nicely. For thousands less, and much more power than the Amp10. I really wanted that input board though. The auto on/off and the soft start features are necessary. Ncores love to say hello when powered on with a little pop, in my experience. Also the amp can get pretty hot. I have an ac infinity on it, but auto on/off will make the modules run much cooler.

Sorry for the rant. Pretty stoked. Won't get the amp for a couple months probably, but I've got one that'll hold down the fort in the meantime

I'm also leaning heavily towards the AMP10. Plan B is a McIntosh MC257 with some smaller amps for the height channels, but I'm very interested in the AMP10's class D efficiency.

 

[peng]

I'm on the list for an AV10 at the moment and hope to have one within the next month. I'm also very pleased with the performance of Audyssey and the MultEQ-X Windows app on my X3700H. I will probably give Dirac Live a try on a 2nd preset once the AV10 gets here, but I strongly suspect I will stay with Audyssey until at least DLBC arrives.

What I have found so far is that XT32 SubEQHT's time aligning subout 1 and 2 works very well if I used the $20 app, and for 4 subs, if you can group them in 2 and are more or less equidistance within each group then the results can be good too (in theory), but obviously depends on the room a lot. The only issue is that it would work very well for some XO points but not all. In my HT room, if I set XO to 60 Hz, it wouldn't integrate well between the front speakers and the subs. Anthem ARC's auto phase has not worked well for me at all, so I am somewhat skeptical reading marketing information and rely on them Placebo effect/expectation bias to work its magic (but that did not work in this case).

DL has a good track record in terms of what they claimed in their marketing info vs the results but I would still want to see a lot of REW plots for the listening windows for sure. May be @Dj7675 can share use some of his REW graphs (I think he uses 4 subs). Just the FR for the mmp is not good enough, need to see more to cover the listening bubble.

 

[JRiggs]

D&M stated that they were planning on having DLBC in early 2024...

Given current developments and Dirac statements, I would think it a fairly good bet, that the early 2024 release will include DLBC and DL-ART.... although I expect DLBC will be more economical than DL-ART (and DL-ART basically includes DLBC....)

The additional cost of the Dirac licences will not be a big deal for buyers of the AV10... but for more mainstream market segments (X3800...) the cost of DL-ART would raise it up an entire market category.... There may well be an opportunity in there for a competitor to bundle DL-ART with their AVR at a mid-market price.... (

No they didn’t. What has actually been said is:

• Support for Bass Control upgrade although the integration efforts has not yet started. We expect we should be able to release a new firmware to support Dirac Live Bass Control upgrade sometime in 2024.

 

[Vacceo]

I'm also leaning heavily towards the AMP10. Plan B is a McIntosh MC257 with some smaller amps for the height channels, but I'm very interested in the AMP10's class D efficiency.

You can also get a McIntosh class D (hypex-based) with 7 channels. It may actually suit you better than the MC257.

 

[ban25]

You can also get a McIntosh class D (hypex-based) with 7 channels. It may actually suit you better than the MC257.

Thanks for the suggestion! Looks like this one?

McIntosh MI347 7-Channel Digital Amplifier

The MI347 7-Channel Home Theater Amplifier delivers an immersive sonic experience to provide an edge-of-your-seat audio experience in the comfort of your home theater.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

 

[Vacceo]

Thanks for the suggestion! Looks like this one?

McIntosh MI347 7-Channel Digital Amplifier

The MI347 7-Channel Home Theater Amplifier delivers an immersive sonic experience to provide an edge-of-your-seat audio experience in the comfort of your home theater.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

That´s correct. The MI amps from McIntosh are based on Hypex Nc500 modules. There is an old thread about the 4 channels (MI254) amp with pics that clearly show it. Both, along with the MX100 processor, can be mounted in a U rack out of the box, so that may be a feature that you could find relevant.

With the Ncx, chances are McIntosh will update the boards eventually, so you may get an extra squeeze in SINAD and a bit better efficiency. Max wattage may remain the same, though, but even in that case, chances are they´ll be plenty. In either case, you´re getting one of the best class D amps in the market, so forget about all that BS about Mc sound: you´ll get a clean, and well manufactured amp. Sure, you can get something very similar for a fraction of the price, but if aesthetics are relevant for you and you can afford a Mc, there is no reason to not have top performance.

If you end up with one on your hands, send us some measures.

 

[Descartes]

That´s correct. The MI amps from McIntosh are based on Hypex Nc500 modules. There is an old thread about the 4 channels (MI254) amp with pics that clearly show it. Both, along with the MX100 processor, can be mounted in a U rack out of the box, so that may be a feature that you could find relevant.

With the Ncx, chances are McIntosh will update the boards eventually, so you may get an extra squeeze in SINAD and a bit better efficiency. Max wattage may remain the same, though, but even in that case, chances are they´ll be plenty. In either case, you´re getting one of the best class D amps in the market, so forget about all that BS about Mc sound: you´ll get a clean, and well manufactured amp. Sure, you can get something very similar for a fraction of the price, but if aesthetics are relevant for you and you can afford a Mc, there is no reason to not have top performance.

If you end up with one on your hands, send us some measures.

McIntosh are so overpriced just like jewelry Audio