Audioholics Measurements and review of Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs

[Beershaun]

Audioholics just published their measurements and review of the Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs. I recently purchased the MRX1140 for my HT over the NADT778. I've been very happy with the unit and nice to see my experience correlates with the measurements.

Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV Receivers Comparison Bench Test Results!

In this bench test report of the Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV receivers, preamp & amplifier performance is evaluated and compared. We cover Bass management and amplifier matrixing performance recommendations.

www.audioholics.com

 

[Everett T]

Audioholics just published their measurements and review of the Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs. I recently purchased the MRX1140 for my HT over the NADT778. I've been very happy with the unit and nice to see my experience correlates with the measurements.

Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV Receivers Comparison Bench Test Results!

In this bench test report of the Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV receivers, preamp & amplifier performance is evaluated and compared. We cover Bass management and amplifier matrixing performance recommendations.

www.audioholics.com

Looks like they started listening and with their price points they better well should. Enjoy!

 

[Slayer]

Audioholics just published their measurements and review of the Anthem MRX 1140 and 740 AVRs. I recently purchased the MRX1140 for my HT over the NADT778. I've been very happy with the unit and nice to see my experience correlates with the measurements.

Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV Receivers Comparison Bench Test Results!

In this bench test report of the Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV receivers, preamp & amplifier performance is evaluated and compared. We cover Bass management and amplifier matrixing performance recommendations.

www.audioholics.com

Agreed, considering what we have been seeing lately, this is a pretty good showing.
However, in this day and age, I have to wonder. Can't we do better?
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't be better off having the power supply section in a separate chassis. Maybe it wouldn't make much of a difference, but I still wonder.

 

[Beershaun]

Links to related reviews from Amir on Anthem products:

Comparable generation Anthem pre/pro:

Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Anthem AVM70. It was sent to me by the company for review and costs US $3799. The AVM70 has a very modern and attractive front panel and display: Company takes full use of the large display as you see with nice icons. Importantly, the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Previous Generation AVR MRX1120:

Anthem MRX1120 Home Theater AVR Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Anthem MRX1120 "flagship" Home Theater Surround 4K/UHD 11.2 Audio/Video Receiver (AVR). Got all that? It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $3,499. You have seen one Athem AVR, you have seen them all: The top of the case looks a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Competing AVR I tried out NAD T778 (including external 2ch amp same price as 1140):

NAD T778 Audio/Video Receiver (AVR) Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the new NAD T778 Home Theater AVR. It was kindly purchased by a member new and send to me and costs US $3,000. It is only sold through dealers and looks like if you contact them, you may get some discount from that price. The NAD looks gorgeous...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ryanosaur]

Agreed, considering what we have been seeing lately, this is a pretty good showing.
However, in this day and age, I have to wonder. Can't we do better?
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't be better off having the power supply section in a separate chassis. Maybe it wouldn't make much of a difference, but I still wonder.

Isn't this bumping up against the argument for Separates? Put all the processing in one box, then the Power Supply and Amps in another?

Admittedly, I have been intrigued by their full processing capability coupled with only a few amp channels.
I can't help but feel this would be best applied to 4-6 amp channels meant to power the less important channels (Rears/Atmos) with balanced and RCA pre-outs for external amplification of the main bed layer (5-7) channels. That, along with the ability to individually turn off pairs of Amp channels (think Denon flagship option to disable individual channels rather than all or nothing) and 2-4 independent LFE/Subwoofer outputs rather than Anthem's silly insistence on simply y-spliting the Sub outs on their lower tier offering.

Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the review measurements Gene posted.

Now... when will they release the flagship AVP?

 

[Dj7675]

It has taken quite a while since release but seems most of the bugs have been worked out now as well from reading the owners thread on avsforum. For me the one big miss is 4 independent sub outs on the 1140 and AVM70. Bummer that they save it only for the AVM90.

 

[Beershaun]

Some quick numbers for the MRX1140 Pre section.

1. 105db SINAD @ 2v for pre section (Puts it around Denon x8500, NADM33 and minidsp flex).
2. ADC is 96Khz at 94db SINAD
3. preamp produces 5.48Vrms 0.1% THD+N.

Amplifier section tables:
Anthem MRX740 power measurements table 5 class AB channels

# of CH​	Test Type​	Power​	Load​	THD + N​
1​	CFP-BW​	145 watts​	8 ohms​	0.1%​
2​	CFP-BW​	130 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	144 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	131 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	180 watts*​	4-ohms​	1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	180 watts*​	4-ohms​	0.1%​
5​	1kHz Psweep​	89 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
5​	1kHz Psweep​	85 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	Dynamic PWR​	212 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
5​	Dynamic PWR​	180 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​

MRX1140 power measurments table 5 class AB channels

# of CH​	Test Type​	Power​	Load​	THD + N​
2​	CFP-BW​	153 watts​	8 ohms​	0.1%​
2​	CFP-BW​	203 watts*​	4-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	55 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	144 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	174 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	176 watts*​	4-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	163 watts*​	4-ohms​	1%​
2​	Dynamic PWR​	187 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
2​	Dynamic PWR​	312 watts​	4-ohms​	1%​

MRX1140/740 Class D amplifier measurements (1140 has 6, 720 has 2)

# of CH​	Test Type​	Power​	Load​	THD + N​
2​	CFP-BW​	60 watts​	8 ohms​	0.1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	70 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
2​	1kHz Psweep​	65 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
4​	1kHz Psweep​	60 watts​	8-ohms​	1%​
4​	1kHz Psweep​	54 watts​	8-ohms​	0.1%​
2​	Dynamic PWR​	103 watts​	8-ohms​	10%​

 

[peng]

Some quick numbers for the MRX1140 Pre section.

1. 105db SINAD @ 2v for pre section (Puts it above Denon x8500 below the NADM33 and minidsp flex).

On this point, not that is is of any significance, but to be fair, it may not be above the X8500H as such because:

- The 105 dB Gene referred to was at the best point of the curve. The X8500H would be 104 dB based on the same criteria, so within margin of error.
- The Denon did better at the below 1.5 V, example: At 0.5 V, the Anthem is at about 89 dB vs Denon's 98 dB, there's a big gap.

Hard to say which one is better, but I think the best quality at below 1 V is probably more important (in general) in real world applications. Again, at such performance level, I don't think there is audible difference for a lot of people, and the MRX740 is really hard to beat at its price point, if it has all the features one needs.

 

[Beershaun]

Yes. I am happy to see more AVRs start to populate that 3 digit SINAD space and show good engineering quality. Also good to get to a point where we need to dig deeper into the graphs to compare units across a frequency range to find competitive differences.

The only thing I wish the Anthem had was more streaming service support like the NAD BlueOS module. That was very slick and gave me lots of great options like Tidal Connect, Roon etc. Airplay2 Spotify, and Chromecast support cover all my use cases and meets my needs but it's not as nice as having direct support.

 

[MarcT]

So, since they are in a similar price point, would you go Anthem 740 or Denon 6700 for a system using a separate power amp for just the front L/R channels? Audyssey vs ARC room correction.

 

[ryanosaur]

From another site... AVM 90 is announced:

Anthem® / Premium Audio Video Receivers & Powered Amplifiers

www.anthemav.com

 

[Beershaun]

The accompanying YouTube video is up.

 

[Beershaun]

So, since they are in a similar price point, would you go Anthem 740 or Denon 6700 for a system using a separate power amp for just the front L/R channels? Audyssey vs ARC room correction.

Anthem has a better preamp section enabling higher output voltage to preamp outputs. So that would be my choice.

 

[Anterantz]

Aren't 85w few watts for the 1140 in its 5 channels? I'm looking at this anthem for the independent double subs and to be able to make a 7.2.4 without the need for stages! My room is small and there will surely be plenty of energy, but I am currently testing an avr30 that has been the best sound that has passed through my room, forceful and powerful and the 85w of the 1140 scares me... what are the faults currently presenting?

 

[Beershaun]

Aren't 85w few watts for the 1140 in its 5 channels? I'm looking at this anthem for the independent double subs and to be able to make a 7.2.4 without the need for stages! My room is small and there will surely be plenty of energy, but I am currently testing an avr30 that has been the best sound that has passed through my room, forceful and powerful and the 85w of the 1140 scares me... what are the faults currently presenting?

No. It's not a problem. Check out the burst power measurements to indicate the head room when needed. Also the 85w is continuous into 5 channels. Most power specs are listed at 2 channels driven. In this case the 1140 is more powerful than the Arcam avr30. 140wpc 2ch continuous full range for the 1140 vs 120wpc for the avr30.

5 channels is always lower than 2. For example Denon promises 80% of rated power for 5 channels. The single power supply can only provide so much power to all channels at the same time.

 

[Oniiz86]

No. It's not a problem. Check out the burst power measurements to indicate the head room when needed. Also the 85w is continuous into 5 channels. Most power specs are listed at 2 channels driven. In this case the 1140 is more powerful than the Arcam avr30. 140wpc 2ch continuous full range for the 1140 vs 120wpc for the avr30.

5 channels is always lower than 2. For example Denon promises 80% of rated power for 5 channels. The single power supply can only provide so much power to all channels at the same time.

It is actually 70% of rated power for 5 channels not that it matters all too much but Marantz has touted that for years & I guess the Sound United marketing team felt it was time for Denon's AVR products to gain another "tick box" feature to add to their marketing material for their 2020 range of AVRs

 

[MadElectrons]

Any thoughts on the MRX-540? Is it expected to perform similar to 740 and 1140 with great pre-out signals?

 

[ash1980]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the best thread but I'm facing issues with configuring my Aria 936 towers with Anthem MRX 740 for both surround and stereo setup. I heard Dali Rubicon 5 , Dali Spektre 2 Bookshelfs and they sounded much more alive than my Aria 936 towers. The dali's were connected to a 10 year old Yamaha amp. We don't have much help available in this region so not sure how to proceed. I have attached my Stereo 2.0 and Stereo 2.1 configurations below, along with some sample audio's as well. This was done via ARC by the person installing the setup.

System:
Aria 936 towers + CC900 Center + 906 for Bookshelf.
Source: Qobuz web player using Nvidia Shield (connected via HDMI)

Sample audio's:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1trq9hj1y1xwxyp/IMG_4661.MOV?dl=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2crdgs0plor9y0/IMG_4662.MOV?dl=1

Would love to get some feedback and learn on how I can improve the sound.

 

[peng]

Hi,

Not sure if this is the best thread but I'm facing issues with configuring my Aria 936 towers with Anthem MRX 740 for both surround and stereo setup. I heard Dali Rubicon 5 , Dali Spektre 2 Bookshelfs and they sounded much more alive than my Aria 936 towers. The dali's were connected to a 10 year old Yamaha amp. We don't have much help available in this region so not sure how to proceed. I have attached my Stereo 2.0 and Stereo 2.1 configurations below, along with some sample audio's as well. This was done via ARC by the person installing the setup.

System:
Aria 936 towers + CC900 Center + 906 for Bookshelf.
Source: Qobuz web player using Nvidia Shield (connected via HDMI)

Sample audio's:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1trq9hj1y1xwxyp/IMG_4661.MOV?dl=1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2crdgs0plor9y0/IMG_4662.MOV?dl=1

Would love to get some feedback and learn on how I can improve the sound.

I don't think you can just rely on the installer without seeing some measurements. I have never used Anthem ARC before and have just started playing around and experiment with it. Will post graphs when I get to the point where I am satisfied with the results but in the following thread:

Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

I picked mine up last night. Did a 5 positions ARC calibration, didn't like the result at all, missed my Denon already. To be fair, I spent lots of time trying to perfect the Denon/Audyssey with the Editor App and Ratbuddyssey so I need to at least spend a few hours on Arc especially I am...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ash1980]

I don't think you can just rely on the installer without seeing some measurements. I have never used Anthem ARC before and have just started playing around and experiment with it. Will post graphs when I get to the point where I am satisfied with the results but in the following thread:

Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor)

I picked mine up last night. Did a 5 positions ARC calibration, didn't like the result at all, missed my Denon already. To be fair, I spent lots of time trying to perfect the Denon/Audyssey with the Editor App and Ratbuddyssey so I need to at least spend a few hours on Arc especially I am...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Not sure what you mean by "installer" ? How can I get measurements?

Also, is there any direct source option in mrx 740?