This is a review and detailed measurements of the Anthem MRX1140 11.2 channel Home Theater AV Receiver (AVR). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4199.
MRX1140 maintains the highly functional and bright display which nicely distinguishes it from mass market AV products. It sports a very easy to use and fast web interface which is what I used to control it. I am happy to see NO legacy inputs on the back panel:
Prior to testing, I attempted to update the firmware. Using the front panel interface, it would check but offer nothing for upgrade. Using the web interface, it nicely gave me the option to update which I allowed. For testing, I set it to just 2 channel output with or without 1 sub enabled (see below).
Peering inside, I see nice extruded aluminum heat sink for the power amplifier. While it was quite warm at the end of testing, not once did it shut down. I don't think I have seen an AVR this robust.
The unit is also relatively light, making it easy to carry to our loft where my lab is.
Anthem MRX1140 DAC Measurements
I initially tested the unit with just left and right fronts enabled and sub turned off -- how I test all AV products:
Then I remembered something the company representative had told me. That for some internal reason, if you don't enable subwoofer, it costs you 10 dB of performance. He was right:
This nicely lands the unit in upper tier of all AV products tested:
For reasons I don't understand, Toslink produced slightly less performance:
I measured this because I can use Toslink to perform sweeps whereas I can't with HDMI. So as you see the follow up measurements, consider that they would likely be a hair better with HDMI.
Here is the distortion sweep with volume set to max:
With ability to go up to 3.2 volt, you should be able to use fairly powerful external amps. But note that the internal amplifier cannot be disabled.
Dynamic range was quite good for this class:
IMD test results are again, good for the category. There are some wiggles towards the end though. I am guessing it is the amplifier pushing max power.
50 Hertz stereophile results is excellent in one channel but fairly worse in the other:
Jitter test shows internal interference regardless of input used:
I had trouble running linearity test as the unit would not produce any output. I then remembered that some AV products mute with this type of signal. Indeed, that was the case here:
From what I recall, it is a hack to enable playback for some Apple products but don't remember precisely.
The reconstruction filter has poor attenuation above 24 kHz:
Which naturally causes problem with wideband, 48 kHz noise+distortion test:
Using a higher sample rate pushes that noise further out and becomes a non problem.
Frequency response is good:
Anthem MRX1140 Amplifier Test:
I set the gain to 25 dB and used RCA input for the dashboard:
I then switched to Toslink which resulted in lower noise and better performance (as it should but doesn't always):
I went round and round with input level and volume setting and that is about the results you get. This is good but I wished was better:
Frequency response using RCA showed digitization at 96 kHz which is good compared to many that do so at 44.1/48 kHz:
Response is fair bit improved by using Toslink and eliminating the path through ADC:
Multitone test shows typical rise in distortion with frequency:
Which you can see reflected in 19+20 kHz:
Using Toslink again we get nice power sweeps:
I could only run my max power test. With burst, distortion would never rise to 1% no matter how much I pushed the amp. I wonder if there an internal limiter:
40 Hz power was respectable:
Here is the full spectrum test:
That should say "no power" loss.
The channel AB amplifier is very well behaved and shows classic response:
I did not test Anthem Room EQ here but I have in my theater with their processor. If the MRX1140 implements the same, I expect excellent performance.
Conclusions
Grading on the AV curve, the DAC performance is very good to excellent. Amplifier is average for the class. User interface and look of the unit is well above average. There are flaws here and there but that is hard to escape in AV products. Hopefully refinement comes in the future.
I am going to recommend the Anthem MRX1140.
P.S. OK, I am exhausted testing this AVR. Having to test three different inputs and variations I am not showing, was a ton of work!
------------
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/
MRX1140 maintains the highly functional and bright display which nicely distinguishes it from mass market AV products. It sports a very easy to use and fast web interface which is what I used to control it. I am happy to see NO legacy inputs on the back panel:
Prior to testing, I attempted to update the firmware. Using the front panel interface, it would check but offer nothing for upgrade. Using the web interface, it nicely gave me the option to update which I allowed. For testing, I set it to just 2 channel output with or without 1 sub enabled (see below).
Peering inside, I see nice extruded aluminum heat sink for the power amplifier. While it was quite warm at the end of testing, not once did it shut down. I don't think I have seen an AVR this robust.
The unit is also relatively light, making it easy to carry to our loft where my lab is.
Anthem MRX1140 DAC Measurements
I initially tested the unit with just left and right fronts enabled and sub turned off -- how I test all AV products:
Then I remembered something the company representative had told me. That for some internal reason, if you don't enable subwoofer, it costs you 10 dB of performance. He was right:
This nicely lands the unit in upper tier of all AV products tested:
For reasons I don't understand, Toslink produced slightly less performance:
I measured this because I can use Toslink to perform sweeps whereas I can't with HDMI. So as you see the follow up measurements, consider that they would likely be a hair better with HDMI.
Here is the distortion sweep with volume set to max:
With ability to go up to 3.2 volt, you should be able to use fairly powerful external amps. But note that the internal amplifier cannot be disabled.
Dynamic range was quite good for this class:
IMD test results are again, good for the category. There are some wiggles towards the end though. I am guessing it is the amplifier pushing max power.
50 Hertz stereophile results is excellent in one channel but fairly worse in the other:
Jitter test shows internal interference regardless of input used:
I had trouble running linearity test as the unit would not produce any output. I then remembered that some AV products mute with this type of signal. Indeed, that was the case here:
From what I recall, it is a hack to enable playback for some Apple products but don't remember precisely.
The reconstruction filter has poor attenuation above 24 kHz:
Which naturally causes problem with wideband, 48 kHz noise+distortion test:
Using a higher sample rate pushes that noise further out and becomes a non problem.
Frequency response is good:
Anthem MRX1140 Amplifier Test:
I set the gain to 25 dB and used RCA input for the dashboard:
I then switched to Toslink which resulted in lower noise and better performance (as it should but doesn't always):
I went round and round with input level and volume setting and that is about the results you get. This is good but I wished was better:
Frequency response using RCA showed digitization at 96 kHz which is good compared to many that do so at 44.1/48 kHz:
Response is fair bit improved by using Toslink and eliminating the path through ADC:
Multitone test shows typical rise in distortion with frequency:
Which you can see reflected in 19+20 kHz:
Using Toslink again we get nice power sweeps:
I could only run my max power test. With burst, distortion would never rise to 1% no matter how much I pushed the amp. I wonder if there an internal limiter:
40 Hz power was respectable:
Here is the full spectrum test:
That should say "no power" loss.
The channel AB amplifier is very well behaved and shows classic response:
I did not test Anthem Room EQ here but I have in my theater with their processor. If the MRX1140 implements the same, I expect excellent performance.
Conclusions
Grading on the AV curve, the DAC performance is very good to excellent. Amplifier is average for the class. User interface and look of the unit is well above average. There are flaws here and there but that is hard to escape in AV products. Hopefully refinement comes in the future.
I am going to recommend the Anthem MRX1140.
P.S. OK, I am exhausted testing this AVR.
Having to test three different inputs and variations I am not showing, was a ton of work!------------
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/
