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Anthem: Doing the HT / 2 Channel Tango

I’ve been the happy owner of a Luxman 507ux fed by a Mytek Brooklyn for about 2 years. Extremely happy with the 2 channel performance, especially with Roon as the source.

For about the same time I’ve created kind of a hybrid system. An Anthem AVM 50 processor feeding 3 IcePower monoblocks, and a subwoofer, with L/R going to the Luxman, and a miniDSP doing room correction somewhere in there.

I finally bit the bullet today and purchased an Anthem MRX 540. I’m always leery of new HT equipment because a lot of highly rated stuff sounds like crap to me. I’ve spent a lot of money on Emotiva and Onkyo solutions which just sucked. My significantly older Theta Casanova easily spanked all of them. The AVM 50 was at least OK, but the MRX 540 is a lot better sounding, even as a preamp.

It’s not a home run. I can’t get the Audio Return Channel to work, and the lack of Roon support means it’s useless as a streamer for me, but still I have to say I’m really happy with the overall sound quality, and this is before any calibration has happened.

In particular it's the background detail, the ambient sound queues feel like they are filling the room a lot better than the AVM 50.

Over the next week or two I’ll set up the subwoofer, and run the ARC to see if I like the choices it makes with minimal intervention.

erik_squires
erik_squires OP
15,657 posts
 

Figured out the eARC issue somehow.  It seems I had to enable the CEC settings on both the TV and Anthem to get it to work.  Odd, but OK. 

erik_squires OP
15,657 posts
 

It's a real shame how complicated a HT processor or receiver can be.

I've figured out the eARC issues, now faced with the room correction software utterly failing to connect to the receiver.

Basic settings, like distance, volume, and crossover frequencies are available via the simple web interface but one of the main reasons for purchasing this unit was the built in EQ.  I was really hoping to get to evaluate the automatic configuration settings as well as my ability to change them.

ljutic
19 posts
 

I bought the 740.  It was a little frustrating at first. 
I have a great dealer who helped me with set up.

I’ve owned some nice processors and receivers.  
the anthem sounds way better.  It integrates with my 

subwoofer so well.  It just sounds awesome.  

erik_squires OP
15,657 posts
 

Fortunately Anthem Tech support got back to me extremely quickly.  The main issue was that the web page has a firmware upgrade command, which I ran, and thought worked, but it's buggy.  You have to upgrade the firmware from the on screen display.  Once that was fixed ARC Genesis mostly worked.

soix
8,651 posts
 

The AVM 50 was at least OK, but the MRX 540 is a lot better sounding, even as a preamp.

Very interesting feedback Eric.  Thanks!  I don’t tend to expect major sonic improvements in A/V equipment, so this info is impressive.  Hopefully the sound quality makes up for your tech pain. 

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