Diminishing Returns In A Hi-End Preamp/Processor?

Mitch,

I've often wondered about his same question. While we won't know without direct comparisons, we can certainly speculate. I have an AVM50v for the record and I use it for 2-channel and multichannel. I heard a D2v in a home theater environment at a retailer. The audio was simply excellent.

I auditioned my current front speakers (Revels) and a competing speaker system (Wilsons) on Ayre and McIntosh 2-channel electronics respectively. I can't say that there were massive and groundbreaking differences in the electronics that made me go, WOW! I was told that the Revels opened up more with the Ayre than the McIntoah and really sang with Levinson. But I digress. Given that aural memory is what it is, I would conjecture that there might not be *huge* differences with analog pass through.

However, remember that the D2v specifically has premium A/D and D/A DACs and superior room correction and granular bass management.. Those can and do play an audible role--and a significant one.

Personally, I've found the role of high quality room correction to be significant and valuable in both two-channel and multichannel.

So, depending on what you value and what you want the system to do there may or may not be stellar differences. Remember that for units like Anthem Pre-Pros you are getting 3 zones, DACs, independent and assignable inputs, ability to label all sources, RS-232 automation, room correction, insependent bass management for music and movies, HDMI, multi-path recording of sources, top-notch video upsampling, noise reduction, and switching, individual source adjustments and tweaks and much more at premium execution. You also get Anthem's support (which is stellar).

In your case, if all you really want is two channel analog with decoding done at the source, with no room correction, etc, then yes the D2v is likely overkill and you won't use 95% of the features. Now, what will give you the same sound? We can conjecture that $1,500 pre-pro is a good price point and may very well do the trick, but that's all it will be unless a good head to head double blind test commences.

If however, you are starting to drag in things like room correction and decoding at the Pre-pro level, then I'd conjecture that it may be a different story and the $1,500 Pre pro may not match up sonically to the D2v.

Just my 2 cents.

I confess that I inverted the question in my initial response. Based on my experience in multichannel and especially Anthem units the answer is absolutely yes there is a sonic difference between a $1,500 prepro and the D2v specifically. There's also a difference with the 50v, which is what I chose. The soundstage, clarity, ambiance, panning of sound and sheer dynamic impact are all different. If you are decoding in the Anthem there is yet more of a difference.

So in my opinion and experience, the multichannel experience improves in spades. It absolutely improves in spades (and granular configuration flexibility). The Anthem, for example allows you to specify direct or nipple for rears and surrounds, my Marantz (in my second theater) doesn't. My Anthem allows for more granular crossover and bass management settings and more advanced room correction than my Marantz. The soundstage, imaging, and dynamics are better on my Anthem.

The more expensive you get (in theory) the better the two channel and multichannel performance will be. If you look at the differences between the D2v and AVM50v it's not in the video but rather all in the audio. It's in te DACs and analog stage and A/D converters.

So if, for example I'm feeding analog multichannel or digital sources into the D2v then I should get better audio on all fronts. Is there a difference between my Oppo analog and Anthem decoding? You bet!

So if multichannel audio is important to you for music or movies you get better multichannel performance and control with more expensive. PrePros. The D2v?... It's a special product.