Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

[techsamurai]

With regard to Audyssey vs Arc Genesis, I think this comparison of Audyssey XT and XT32 may also be of value. For this person, both Audyssey XT and Audyssey XT32 seemed to have done a fantastic job of flattening the response:

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/audyssey-xt-vs-audyssey-xt32-with-actual-rew-measurements.3261684/

Also, I think with 1 sub, Audyssey XT was almost the same as Audyssey XT32 but XT32 was better with 2 subs which was surprising as many people say that XT is much worse than XT32. He also took 3 positions Left, middle, right). It would have been great if he had also tested MultEq and perhaps Marantz and Denon should have given him a free AVR to do that since we're all in the dark when it comes to these things.

I do wonder if they had used a middle position with 3 inch increments (the approach suggested by Gene and Theo), if they would have had even better results.

Peng, thank you so much for testing this and sharing your results!

 

[Dj7675]

With regard to Audyssey vs Arc Genesis, I think this comparison of Audyssey XT and XT32 may also be of value. For this person, both Audyssey XT and Audyssey XT32 seemed to have done a fantastic job of flattening the response:

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/audyssey-xt-vs-audyssey-xt32-with-actual-rew-measurements.3261684/

Also, I think with 1 sub, Audyssey XT was almost the same as Audyssey XT32 but XT32 was better with 2 subs which was surprising as many people say that XT is much worse than XT32. He also took 3 positions Left, middle, right). It would have been great if he had also tested MultEq and perhaps Marantz and Denon should have given him a free AVR to do that since we're all in the dark when it comes to these things.

I do wonder if they had used a middle position with 3 inch increments (the approach suggested by Gene and Theo), if they would have had even better results.

Peng, thank you so much for testing this and sharing your results!

Those are not actually measured post audyssey results. Those are just predicted response graphs, often having little resemblance to actual post measurement results. All of these room correction systems has a predicted response and I wouldn’t trust any of them without actually measuring them.

 

[techsamurai]

Those are not actually measured post audyssey results. Those are just predicted response graphs, often having little resemblance to actual post measurement results. All of these room correction systems has a predicted response and I wouldn’t trust any of them without actually measuring them.

It has the predictions on top and Rew measurements below.

 

[peng]

Just out of curiosity, what is this chart exactly? Is it all the speakers combined or the sub and LR?

Its LRS (left+right+subwoofers)

It looks like ArcG's predicted response was near perfect in their reports (you mentioned pdfs) which makes sense since the software is thinking that it has applied the correction.

Using my internal visual calculator, I'd say the tweaked ArcG had 30% less variance than the untweaked ArcG in the >300hz range.

Audyssey is slightly better than the tweaked ArcG from 300hz to 5khz but then drops off dramatically and that's a concern.

It's hard to compare to Audyssey as it seems to have been tweaked. I'd be curious to see Audyssey's untweaked measurements. Did you tweak the 300+hz range for Audyssey?

I only tweaked the low frequencies, mainly up to about 500 Hz I am going by memory.

It sounds like you took measurements for 5 and 7 listening positions which would have affected this. Are the positions actual seats or slight adjustments off the primary seating position?

If you actually used different positions, then I'd say the room correction over 300hz is pretty impressive. Is there a chart or measurement without any room correction to gauge the overall impact of the room correction software over 300hz?

Like the vast majority of people, I'd never take measurements so I'm at the mercy of the software.

Correction limited to 5 kHz:
ARCG did not do too bad from >50 Hz but the deep bass was cut for some reason. It sounded so obvious to me that I pull out the Umik-1 mic right away to see what happened and go the black curve. Adding deep bass and played with room gain fixed it.

 

[peng]

• It's hard to tell how good Audyssey is without tweaking

I guess this is what you would like to see?
Curve is for LRS,

Same as above but with 1/12 th smoothing, has to use smoothing when the mid and high frequencies are included:
Red if with Audyssey off, black is left, right, sub1 and sub2. The roll off is as expected, it is by design, unless you tweak it flat or use the flat curve to minimize roll off.

 

[peng]

What channels are these measurements of? I don't know what mmp stands for. (is it a listening position?)

Yes, it means main mic position, that is the first position when using Audyssey auto setup, same for Anthem ARC and Dirac Live.

 

[Descartes]

……Both Arc Genesis and Audyssey seem to do a decent job over 300hz

• Arc Genesis is a no-go for frequencies under 100hz without tweaking
• After running calibration, get a set of frequencies 5hz increments for bass (10hz from 100hz) and measure your sub and LCR with your phone and plot them into a chart. Unless running REW is easier.

Are you saying that ARC Genesis is unable to calibrate the bass?

 

[peng]

Since you seem interested in my Audyssey without tweaking with the App and Ratbuddsseym, here's another one:

Audyssey reference curve, MRC enabled, FL+FR+Sub1+Sub2, vs Audyssey off, Psy smoothing:

 

[peng]

Are you saying that ARC Genesis is unable to calibrate the bass?

I think he's just commenting on mine, a specific case. I don't know what others look as they don't seem to want to post their measured FR graphs. So I may be among just a few who ran into such an issue. Agian, just in my case, it did a okay job smoothing the bass from above 50 Hz, before that, it got cut for no apparent reason. I asked Anthem support about the deep bass missing issue, included my REW graphs for them to look at too but got no response. I followed up a few weeks later by email and still no response, it has been at least 2.5 to 3 months now since I first contacted them, so I doubt I will ever get a response from them.

Since I could fix 90% of it by applying manual tweaks with deep bass and room gain, I am not going to keep chasing them for help. I consider myself an experienced RC user so I don't think they can help much anyway other than telling me to follow instructions and/or tell me to try things I have already tried. I do hope that they may be aware of the issue, as I remember reading a few posters on AVS forum mentioning about the missing deep bass after calibration, so hopefully they may do something in their next ARCG update.

 

[Descartes]

I think he's just commenting on mine, a specific case. I don't know what others look as they don't seem to want to post their measured FR graphs. So I may be among just a few who ran into such an issue. Agian, just in my case, it did a okay job smoothing the bass from above 50 Hz, before that, it got cut for no apparent reason. I asked Anthem support about the deep bass missing issue, included my REW graphs for them to look at too but got no response. I followed up a few weeks later by email and still no response, it has been at least 2.5 to 3 months now since I first contacted them, so I doubt I will ever get a response from them.

Since I could fix 90% of it by applying manual tweaks with deep bass and room gain, I am not going to keep chasing them for help. I consider myself an experienced RC user so I don't think they can help much anyway other than telling me to follow instructions and/or tell me to try things I have already tried. I do hope that they may be aware of the issue, as I remember reading a few posters on AVS forum mentioning about the missing deep bass after calibration, so hopefully they may do something in their next ARCG update.

Interesting I also find the bass anemic with ARC Genesis!

 

[techsamurai]

Interesting I also find the bass anemic with ARC Genesis!

I wonder if you have the same problem. Is there a way to play certain frequencies and measure it with your phone's SPL?

 

[techsamurai]

Since you seem interested in my Audyssey without tweaking with the App and Ratbuddsseym, here's another one:

Audyssey reference curve, MRC enabled, FL+FR+Sub1+Sub2, vs Audyssey off, Psy smoothing:


View attachment 267991

Is this essentially your sound without Audyssey and also after running Audyssey (without any modifications)?

This would be what most people would get after running Audyssey after running a calibration. If they turn Audyssey on, they hear the black line, if they turn it off they hear the red line.

There is a huge difference in the bass and midrange but oddly enough they're very closely matched over 300hz.

 

[peng]

Is this essentially your sound without Audyssey and also after running Audyssey (without any modifications)?

This would be what most people would get after running Audyssey after running a calibration. If they turn Audyssey on, they hear the black line, if they turn it off they hear the red line.

There is a huge difference in the bass and midrange but oddly enough they're very closely matched over 300hz.

Yes, Audyssey untweaked, the black curve, means just run auto setup using the app without doing any manual adjustments other than disabling MRC or leaving it enabled by default.

 

[peng]

Interesting I also find the bass anemic with ARC Genesis!

Do you use REW? Regardless, you should set up a profile and apply a few dB deep bass, also increase room gain by a couple dB and find out if you like it.

As I mentioned, some poster on avsf also mentioned the same, but quickly quiet down....

 

[mclain1]

For the main zone, it is the ES9038Q2M. That's what Anthem support told me. The only difference between the 4K and 8K version is the HDMI board. You should ask them and see if you will get the same answer.

Thanks Guys, i reached out to support and they told me the same thing. the AVM 70 8k version uses ES9038Q2M. Knowing that, I would be curious if there needs to be an updated shootout between other prepro's as i would assume the ES9038Q2M may have a differecence in sound vs the original AVM 70 no.?

 

[mclain1]

Hello Guys, i just received my AVM 70. I've done the quick presets to get it hooked up on the network via hardwired. I performed a firmware update to 2.1.197. When attempting to connect to the device via the Android app or the ARC Genesis windows app i get prompted with a msg stating the AVM 70 needs a firmware update to work with this version of ARC Genesis. I get prompted requiring a firmware update to use the android app also. Is there a fix for this?

 

[BJL]

Are you saying that ARC Genesis is unable to calibrate the bass?

I've scanned through these 32 pages, and I haven't seen any comment on ARC Genesis as compared with Dirac Live, although I have seen the various posts about tweaking ARC to get the sound right. I've been using DL happily, and I have not had to tweak anything (although I have tried a couple Harmon target curves). For me, the room correction software is critical, and though I'm interested in the Anthem, if ARC is inferior to DL, then I will look elsewhere.

 

[Descartes]

I've scanned through these 32 pages, and I haven't seen any comment on ARC Genesis as compared with Dirac Live, although I have seen the various posts about tweaking ARC to get the sound right. I've been using DL happily, and I have not had to tweak anything (although I have tried a couple Harmon target curves). For me, the room correction software is critical, and though I'm interested in the Anthem, if ARC is inferior to DL, then I will look elsewhere.

I have owned Anthem AVM-60 and have used ARC-Genesis for sometime and have been satisfied! I is don’t know about DIRAC but I agree if would be interesting to see a direct comparison without tinkering which one comes out on top!

 

[peng]

All those A vs B vs C are just people's subjective opinions, no contolled blind listening comparisons that I know of. If any one has read about such blind tests, please share links.

Based on measurements with REW/Umik-2 mic, I would conclude that with or without tweaking, Dirac DLBC (PC standalone version>Audyssey+Editor App>>ARC Genesis. That's based on spending multiple days playing around each and measurement based on 2.2 only.

 

[Descartes]

All those A vs B vs C are just people's subjective opinions, no contolled blind listening comparisons that I know of. If any one has read about such blind tests, please share links.

Based on measurements with REW/Umik-2 mic, I would conclude that with or without tweaking, Dirac DLBC (PC standalone version>Audyssey+Editor App>>ARC Genesis. That's based on spending multiple days playing around each and measurement based on 2.2 only.

2 Channel is of no interest to me multichannel is what I care about