Anthem MRX1120 Home Theater AVR Review

[Dimifoot]

I don’t think there is an AVR with balanced outs in the market.
Only prepros

 

[carlob]

I don’t think there is an AVR with balanced outs in the market.
Only prepros

Yamaha AVR but only for front channels (L+R)

 

[Dimifoot]

And the Focal


But none offering all outs as balanced

 

[Sparky]

Now we just need an Arcam measured.

Now THAT would be interesting!

 

[Thomas savage]

So they could make more money.

Yes but really because there's no reason to .

 

[Thomas savage]

Companies make things for mass market as good as they have to be.

If there's pressure and a more informed customer base.., schiit gets better.

 

[dlinsley]

You must also assume a zero cost or lesser cost for speaker output lugs which aren't needed. And you don't think you save on a much smaller power supply to a pre/pro vs power amps?

I don't know if the 60 is a 120 without amps or some completely different design. In this case, maybe a 60 without power amps and keep it single ended would be a good bargain.

The 60 basically removes the amps and replaces them with XLRs, but adds a small amp for the headphone jack (the 720/1120 use one of the speaker amps for this), and uses a slightly better ADC. Otherwise they are identical, and both have the toroidal transformer which the 720 lacks.

 

[North_Sky]

So they could make more money.

Exactly, to make more money.

I'd check competitors...Arcam, NAD, Yamaha Aventage, ...their separates.
Pioneer Elite, ESS Sabre Pro DACs, Dirac Live pre-pro, Emotive separates, Denon, Marantz, ...all in between $2,500 and $5,000 price range...and below and above. XLR
Everything's for sale.

 

[dlinsley]

Thank you Amir for reviewing my 1120!

I bought this piece back in March 2016, and originally used all the built-in amps. I was curious if I could improve upon this and got a great deal on an ATI AT523NC. I may be being fooled by bias but the sound did seem less congested. Would amplifier SINAD of 99dB compared to 86dB be considered audible, or am I just fooled?

 

[Tks]

SINAD vs Measured Level graph.. I'm moist.

How arduous is it to compile that sort of graph

 

[Milt]

I also wonder about Anthems update cadence: These devices were released in 2017, I'm looking to build a HT next year. There should be a decent chance of a successor being released in the meantime, shouldn't there?

Given Anthem's history, I would not expect a replacement before then

 

[dlinsley]

Given Anthem's history, I would not expect a replacement before then

I think we'll see an update for HDMI 2.1 in the next 12 months, but I'm not sure the 16 channel market is what they'll chase unless it becomes a required check box feature. Given the pricing has been static for over four years, demand doesn't seem to have been an issue so far, but if Emotiva can fix all of their issues the XMC-2 could be very attractive.

Note that Anthem have had various pricing deals since day 1 - I purchased mine over four years ago and it came with a $600 Paradigm DTS Play-Fi speaker. It should have been the larger $800 version, but I had originally ordered a 720 from my dealer which turned out to be out of stock at Anthem and so Anthem and my dealer gave me 20% off the 1120 if I took the freebie from the 720 instead of the 1120. That worked out so much cheaper than adding the four channel amp I'd planned to

 

[Ron Texas]

Decent AVR for a multi channel set up.

 

[amirm]

How arduous is it to compile that sort of graph

We could pick a few points from it and put it in the review tables.

 

[amirm]

Would amplifier SINAD of 99dB compared to 86dB be considered audible, or am I just fooled?

Thanks again for the loan. No, that alone would not do it but likely the ATI amp doesn't drop its power when more channels are driven like this one might.

 

[iLoveCats]

I think this is being too kind for this much money. Its a good performer amongst all the other turd AVR's, but we are still in the toilet! Its a hard pass for me. Waiting on that Arcam.

 

[amirm]

Which arcam midel?

 

[Koloth]

https://www.whathifi.com/news/arcam-reveals-complete-new-av-receiver-range-at-cedia-expo

One of these newer releases would be great...

Arent there any friendly dealers around your location, that would let you home "audition" one of these things?

 

[iLoveCats]

Which arcam midel?

AVR390 or AVR550 The most affordable ones. The AVR850 is $6000!

 

[MZKM]

Which arcam midel?

The THD specs for the 390 and 850 are the same (<0.02%), so they shouldn’t be too dissimilar.