Anthem STR pre-amp

[Thomas savage]

Bought this , plugged it in.. sounds at least as good as my belles statement pre .

It's got a ton of functionality, is less than half the price of my belles . In fact I might be able to sell my belles for the same price as I bought this new.

Although it's internally converting to 32/196 it suffers little detrimental effects I can hear over the pure analogue signal. There's a slight shiny sound possibly around 10K that needs more investigation.

I'm yet to run the room EQ and subwoofer integration software as I need a adapter for my phone to plug the mic into.

I believe it measured well, maybe the integrated version would be something @amirm could get his hands on to measure.

I actually think it sounds more detailed than my old belles and the imaging is more precise but regardless it's certainly no worse. Iv had a bunch of £10000 ish pre's through my hifi over the years and this as good as any sound wise and has abilities non of those far more expensive ones had.

I will up date when iv got the room software working .

https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/model=str-pre-amplifier/page=overview

 

[amirm]

It looks a lot like Lyngdorf processor I reviewed recently. At $4K, it is too expensive for me to buy but maybe a member who owns one sends it in for review.

 

[Daverz]

The price point is similar to the Lyngdorf TDAI-2170. The Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 that was reviewed is several grand more depending on configuration.

The MiniDSP SHN + amp of your choice would be an interesting comparison: Anthem vs. Lyngdorf vs. Dirac room correction.

 

[Thomas savage]

Iv setup the automatic room compensation software, I did it with my phone and a supplied mic so iv not got the plots for you all.

All I will say is unlike the DSPeaker antimode 2 that thoroughly messed up the sound and gave you a false bypass mode as way of comparison that was not a true bypass at all the anthem STR just dose it's job with no obvious effect beyond better fidelity.

At some point I will get a laptop so I can share the before and after plots .

Anyone interested in my subjective impressions can PM me.

 

[Purité Audio]

I heard this whilst visiting ‘Pulse’ for the Paradigms it looked the business and I thought the room correction appeared considered and sounded natural.
Keith

 

[Soniclife]

Anyone interested in my subjective impressions can PM me.

I say share them here, we haven't gone full hydrogen audio yet have we?

 

[GGroch]

....At some point I will get a laptop so I can share the before and after plots....

Anthem says the new Arc3 Genesis files using Mac/Windows are more sophisticated than, and incompatible with the Arc2 Android/IOS so you will need to measure again. Hopefully they will update the Android/IOS ARC apps to restore compatibility.

I think there are at least 2 versions of Arc equalization microphones. A standard uncalibrated version that comes with the PW/Amp/Link & ML Forte/Unison, and a calibrated version that has a calibration file serial number printed on it that comes with the Arc Kit, and perhaps a 3rd that comes with the Paradigm PBK (perfect bass kit). Was the Athem STR mic the calibrated version? I can't tell from the manufacturer's lit.

 

[Krunok]

Anyone interested in my subjective impressions can PM me.

Share them here so we can make some decent fun of you!

 

[Thomas savage]

There was 2 mic's and a tripod that came with the pre , ones got a s/n on but that did not work with my phone so I used the other one that looks similar but it's light plastic and unmarked.

I'm guessing it might not be calibrated but there's no word of that being the case in the manual.

I know there's a ton more you can fart about with if you do the room measurement with a laptop... For me that's a reason not to get one as I end up getting distracted with it all and forget about the music lol

The software is doing it's thing upto 5khz but still it sounds incredibly natural and very much how I'm used to it, just less room better imaging and the vocal sits out from the music with intelligibility being greatly increased. The subwoofers are totally invisible and everything is very ' linear ' sounding . I use dual subs but I'd not know it by listening now , they have perfectly merged with the mains . No weird bass hump, non of that sudden louder note every now and then.

It sounds 'right' and tbh how it should be.

I could wax on and pull out a load of tracks but all folks need to know is it works as designed and there's nothing to fear wrt the precious pure analogue being molested.

I love it .

 

[Thomas savage]

I look forward to getting a pair of @March Audio monoblocks so I can be finally free of transformer hum.. I'm not expecting them to sound different to what I'm using now however.

 

[Soniclife]

You are making it sound exactly like the sort of thing a normal person would want from RC and sub integration. Does the phone app offer any form of customisation, e.g. simple room curve choices?

I'll be interested if your opinion changes after a few weeks of just using it, I've lost track of the times I thought I'd made a massive improvement from a set-up change only to realise after a few days it was massively worse.

 

[Thomas savage]

You are making it sound exactly like the sort of thing a normal person would want from RC and sub integration. Does the phone app offer any form of customisation, e.g. simple room curve choices?

I'll be interested if your opinion changes after a few weeks of just using it, I've lost track of the times I thought I'd made a massive improvement from a set-up change only to realise after a few days it was massively worse.

With the mobile app there's little customisation, you can still mess about the the sub xover Freq and treble bass and subwoofer levels can be messed with.

And yes , especially with subwoofers iv found the ' oh this is great ' turns out being ' oh this is all kinds of wrong' .

I don't tend to listen too hard or engage my imagination these days , I'm either enjoying it or I'm like ' wtf is that ' .

 

[Soniclife]

I don't tend to listen too hard or engage my imagination these days , I'm either enjoying it or I'm like ' wtf is that ' .

It's the long term stuff that matters, you can convince yourself anything when thinking about it, but the times I've messed up and not realised it's not feeling like listening to music that has alerted me to something being off. And yes it's usually sub setup.

 

[Thomas savage]

Having moved my speakers and subwoofers back against the front wall so I can bring my listening position forward and away a bit more from my rear wall I'd normally expect a right ball ache but the room EQ software has made this a breeze.

Laptop is on the way so I can post some graphs to show what's actually going on. This Anthem STR is so liberating and has taken all the stress out of hifi for me.

 

[Soniclife]

How close to the wall are they now?

 

[Thomas savage]

How close to the wall are they now?

3 inches or so .. can't hear anything bad but will see when the laptop comes .

If I can be arsed I might move them back to the old position to see how the software copes in the two different scenarios and post all the graphs .

 

[Soniclife]

That is close, I would expect some sort of midrange issue, but if the software can manage that I'm very impressed.

 

[MZKM]

maybe the integrated version would be something @amirm could get his hands on to measure.

Stereophile measurements
Solid performance

 

[donttrustgoats]

The measured SNR is pretty bad for an amp in this price range:

Wideband unweighted: 76.8dB
Restricted <22kHz: 83.7dB
A-weighted: 86.4dB

I've had a couple Anthem MCA amps and I've always thought there's no way they meet the 120dB SNR spec.

 

[veeceem]

The measured SNR is pretty bad for an amp in this price range:

Wideband unweighted: 76.8dB
Restricted <22kHz: 83.7dB
A-weighted: 86.4dB

I've had a couple Anthem MCA amps and I've always thought there's no way they meet the 120dB SNR spec.

According to these measurements, the separated preamp is good for not-academic-purpose I think. Btw, I bought the preamp new for $2500 include tax/shipping

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews...them-str-preamplifier-power-amplifier-review/

https://www.audioholics.com/av-preamp-processor-reviews/anthem-str-preamp-power-amplifier/p2