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Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

Newman

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You are talking in circles. First you pull me up for saying people are dismissing Anthem Logic out of hand -- "what makes you think anyone is saying that?", you said -- and now you admit you said "not having Auro-3D is a dealbreaker" (which is dismissing Anthem Logic out of hand) and now you say Anthem Logic sucked at music compared to Dolby PL II. The latter comment, BTW, putting you in a small minority and at odds with all those who have been saying for years that it's PL II that sucks at upmixing stereo for music.

If the circle talk continues, you will find that you are talking to yourself.
 

jhaider

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You are talking in circles. First you pull me up for saying people are dismissing Anthem Logic out of hand -- "what makes you think anyone is saying that?", you said -- and now you admit you said "not having Auro-3D is a dealbreaker" (which is dismissing Anthem Logic out of hand)

To refresh your recollection regarding the common meaning of your ill-chosen phrase:

Screen Shot 2021-10-16 at 12.13.19 AM.png

From: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/dismiss+out+of+hand

The key there is without due...consideration.

Trying something and finding it wanting may be "dismissing" but it is not dismissing out of hand. Likewise, noting a product is missing a feature one believes is critical for relevance in a given market niche is making an observation based on consideration.
 

mdsimon2

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Which one? I was talking of the chart in this review. It can do all that but this SINAD is only when you don't use the features the actual product is design to do.... Side question, even if we where talking pure Dacs with no fluff, did we ever seen one with a HDMI input in the >103dB SINAD territory? Until we see one, what do we know what the limitations are?

A HDMI extractor can get you there very easily (at least for 2 channel). See below for a measurement of a cheap HDMI extractor being fed by a 2014 Mac Mini. This measurement is purely digital but it shows that there is no inherent limitation to using HDMI as an input.

Extractor.jpg

Michael
 

PeteL

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A HDMI extractor can get you there very easily (at least for 2 channel). See below for a measurement of a cheap HDMI extractor being fed by a 2014 Mac Mini. This measurement is purely digital but it shows that there is no inherent limitation to using HDMI as an input.

View attachment 159339
Michael
Sorry what Am I looking at? If it is purely digital, what is the extractor doing? Where is the measurment taken in the chain? what type of digital signal? SPDIF? and what is the extractor model?
 
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Archaea

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Anthem has had a couple of their own up mixers in their models to date, all of which have been worthwhile (AnthemLogic is the current flavor). It's not the same as Auro3D. Instead of adding reverb overhead it relies on analyzing the content and making (arguably) more nuanced choices about how to expand the signal. As with all such systems, you may or may not find it to be "the one" that you like.

My impression in terms of how much manipulation goes on (from most to least) is something like:

DTS
Dolby
Anthem
Auro

But since there is no single unit that does them all, it is even more fraught than a traditional sighted comparison.

Auro seems to purposely add harmonic distortion. I’d call that manipulating the sound.

FWIW, It would not bother me at all to lose Auro on my Denon x6700h. Dolby Surround is my favorite upmixer by a large margin.
 
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Archaea

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Nice review and thanks.
My question is why does VRMS go so high? We don’t normally see that right?

Is that a good thing or no? Is it cause for concern for consumer amps with say a .775 or 1.4 VRMS input sensitivity?

If I understand correctly the Monoprice HTP1 has a VRMS limiter function in the software for its XLR outputs’ voltage you can set to gain match. Does this Anthem? Does it matter?
 
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mdsimon2

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Sorry what Am I looking at? If it is purely digital, what is the extractor doing? Where is the measurment taken in the chain? what type of digital signal? SPDIF? and what is the extractor model?

It’s a digital loop back, Mac mini HDMI output -> HDMI extractor -> TOSLINK output -> Mac mini TOSLINK input.

The test signal is a 1 kHz tone at 96 kHz / 24 bit.

Specific model is linked below but I have a few of these and none show any degradation.


Michael
 

PeteL

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JDS

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Digital clipping. AV companies license binaries for each processing block such as CODEC. Each vendor of that technology demands independent headroom meaning the core software has to reduce the levels before handing the bits to that subsystem -- whether it needs it or not. Do this across a few of them (room EQ, bass management, upmixer, etc.) and you wing up wasting good bit of dynamic range. It is a problem with siloed implementation rather than one integrated system you get in a software player with such pipeline.
That's helpful -- thanks. It also suggests that (a) mass-market integrated HT devices really should be ranked separately from 2-channel standalone boxes, as you have been doing, and (b) that the problem is unlikely to go away soon, since solving it would require either cooperation among competing vendors or major investment in software development by individual AVR manufacturers for minimal competitive advantage.
 

peng

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Nice review and thanks.
My question is why does VRMS go so high? We don’t normally see that right?

Is that a good thing or no? Is it cause for concern for consumer amps with say a .775 or 1.4 VRMS input sensitivity?

If I understand correctly the Monoprice HTP1 has a VRMS limiter function in the software for its XLR outputs’ voltage you can set to gain match. Does this Anthem? Does it matter?

For XLR/balanced output it isn't that high though. 8 V balanced/XLR would be 4 V unbalance/RCA.
 

Head_Unit

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Let's see what Amir finds.

Personally I like what Anthem say about how ARC works. Good principles, good concepts.
It would be really interesting to hear counterpoint from the Dirac and Audyssey guys. Personally the idea of deconvolving (or is it reconvolving) the impulse response has more appeal than automated parametric EQ, having attended a presentation from a guy who was The Grateful Dead's sound man, explaining how parametric EQ made nice curves but sounded terrible. I get the feeling though that all these system are kind of hybridized. For one house by the beach, with one tower in a corner and the other along an open wall, Audyssey sure smoothens things out. Never tried Dirac or ARC
 

tparm

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It would be really interesting to hear counterpoint from the Dirac and Audyssey guys. Personally the idea of deconvolving (or is it reconvolving) the impulse response has more appeal than automated parametric EQ, having attended a presentation from a guy who was The Grateful Dead's sound man, explaining how parametric EQ made nice curves but sounded terrible. I get the feeling though that all these system are kind of hybridized. For one house by the beach, with one tower in a corner and the other along an open wall, Audyssey sure smoothens things out. Never tried Dirac or ARC
I believe many people expect far too much from room correction. Good set up and room treatments yield far better results and Audyssey, Dirac and Arc should be used sparingly to refine a room. I’ve used all three (have an AVM 70 sitting on a shelf to replace my RMC-1L next week) and they all do fine if you take time to understand their strengths. I’ve used Dirac in Arcam, NAD and Emotiva eco systems and think it does a good job (best in NAD) with high frequencies and lacks in LFE. Audyssey is great with the app if you take time to do real work post calibration. Can’t speak to Genesis but I’ll let you know next week…. I owned a MRX 510 years ago and thought it was the best system so I am looking forward to using the new version.
 

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Xyrium

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Thanks Amir.

This looks decent for the application, but not good enough to sway me from a Denon AVR. I do like the layout of the back.
I agree, for the price, it's a bit of a stretch. A Denon or even the MiniDSP would probably be better.
 

Dj7675

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Does the AVM70 allow for manual calibration where you set the frequency, type of filter, etc via the web interface?
 

Ageve

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Did you measure RCA performance as well?

It would be nice to have a result comparable to Denon and others lacking XLR.

Maybe not the intended use for this product, but RCA is more common in consumer electronics.
 

JasonC331

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Does the AVM70 allow for manual calibration where you set the frequency, type of filter, etc via the web interface?
Not the filter type, you have basic crossover settings and more advanced subwoofer control.


1634477513243.png
1634477593375.png
 

JasonC331

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Inside ARC you have a good bit of control:

1634477823918.png
 

tparm

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Does the AVM70 allow for manual calibration where you set the frequency, type of filter, etc via the web interface?
No multi-band PEQ like Emotiva is that’s what you’re asking. Would be interesting to know how many people actually use that method. Emo has 11 bands per speaker, you have to use something like REW to measure and you can’t use Dirac and PEQ simultaneously. It’s great in theory, likely not something most manufacturers would build into their products.
 

Dj7675

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No multi-band PEQ like Emotiva is that’s what you’re asking. Would be interesting to know how many people actually use that method. Emo has 11 bands per speaker, you have to use something like REW to measure and you can’t use Dirac and PEQ simultaneously. It’s great in theory, likely not something most manufacturers would build into their products.
I believe Trinnov Altitude, Stormaudio MK1/2, Monoprice HTP1 all have manual PEQ available. Not everyone will want or need this but it is a really nice capability to have. For example you can do speaker EQ based off of Amir’s speaker measurements if he has measured your speakers. Or if you are satisfied with the speaker response except for 1 or 2 issues. You can quickly try the filter on/off and see if you like it or not. Just another tool that is nice to have.
 
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