Looking for New AV Processor

+1 Marantz

Or,

While you have the system somewhat torn apart and since you didn't mention the size of your room, demo a quality 2 channel integrated amp with sub out.  5.1 speakers are a big challenge to setup and integrate properly, even today.  I ditched surround years ago and have been 2 channel since for my main AV room.  I like my Atoll IN 200 evo with optional DA100 DAC board with my ProAc studio 148s.  You might surprised what you get with a quality integrated amp with your two main speakers setup well.  The Atoll is one of the few integrated amps made today that have a tape loop.  I use it for equalizing some difficult / harsh AV tracks with a Cardas Iridium cable in the defeatable loop.

@crnkit - Not that I have a need to be validated, but if you are asking if I'd talked to them, yes, and they pretty much agreed that it has these issues.

First, a little terminology.  Dolby Surround specifically means 2 to 4 channel matrix decoding/encoding.  It is the brand used in motion picture auditoriums, and was for a while also called Dolby Pro-Logic in homes.  Not sure if the PL label still applies. 

I've also had help from those with better tools than I at DIYaudio.  Every processor I've had in the past let me enable Dolby Surround regardless of the stream's encoding.  So long as it was at least a 2 channel source, I could enable the DS part. 

Anthem DOES NOT. 

All Netflix 2 channel streams are tagged Dolby Digital 2.0 and for whatever reason marked as non-DS.  

Here's the thing.  Anthem still shows "Dolby Surround" on the screen, but the center and surround are not working.  One weird way to test this is with Anime that you can compare to Crunchyroll.  CR's streams are PCM however, not DD 2.0 and as such Anthem DOES use the DS decoding.  

Depending on how you look at it, either Anthem is being very strict about adhering to the rules, and then the bug is that it displays Dolby Surround when it should not, or it's a bug that it's not enabling DS even when you've told it to, AND saying it did. 

Also, and this is a nit, this is an electrically noisy receiver.  I think even with it "off" it still has enough noise in the outputs to keep my external amps from sleeping.  I had to adjust the amp sensitivity considerably. 

My current Sub is located front middle (mostly due to having four cats) and I’ve added a little gain, but adding a second sub is a good idea, the SV1 is quite musical and nimble but is maybe lacking oomph and maybe needs a big brother.

That’s almost never the best location in room for optimal subwoofer performance.  Your sub goes down to 21Hz -3dB, and I suspect you may not be getting all it’s capable of so before adding another sub I’d work on better placement (if at all possible) and optimizing the sub’s settings as well if you haven’t already done that.  If you have placement flexibility I’d use the crawl method to find the spots in your room where you’ll get the best bass in your particular room, and here’s a link for how to do that…

https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/crawling-for-bass-subwoofer-placement

Once you find the right placement here are some straightforward and effective instructions on how to optimize sub settings in case you haven’t already done something like this (these  are from Paradigm who makes pretty good subs)…

Set the pre/pro tone controls, equalizer to FLAT and turn off any LOUDNESS adjustment. Grab a friend or wife...but not a friends wife....

1. Turn the Subwoofer Level control completely counterclockwise to its minimum; 2. Turn the Subwoofer crossover frequency control clockwise to its highest frequency (i.e. 150 Hz). 3. Set the Phase Alignment Control to 0°; 4. While you listen to a bass music or video selection in your primary listening area, have an assistant turn up the Subwoofer Level control until the subwoofer can be clearly heard; 5. Have an assistant try the Phase Alignment control until you hear the most bass. Your subwoofer and front speakers are now in phase. Do not change phase alignment again unless you move the subwoofer or the front speakers to a different location in the room or move or remove large items of furniture or room furnishings (i.e. carpet, draperies, etc.) 6. Turn the Subwoofer level contol completely counterclockwise to its minimum. 7. Turn the Subwoofer crossover completely counter-clockwise to its lowest frequency (i.e. 50 Hz); 8. Slowly rotate the Subwoofer Level control until you match the subwoofer output level with the level of your front speakers. Bass should be clearly audible, but not intrusive; 9. Slowly rotate the Subwoofer crossover control until you hear the best subwoofer/main speaker blend. If the sound is too ‘thin,’ you have not set the frequency high enough; if the sound becomes ‘boomy’ you have set the frequency too high. Adjust until you find the most natural balance.  The sub should not draw attention to itself.

 

Your interconnects/cables seem ok, and I wouldn’t bother with bi-amping.  Hope this helps. 

@ bjp9738

Regarding the Marantz Audyssey room correction, my understanding is the 8805A has MultEQ version which I've read is a big improvement. Is this still significantly inferior to Anthem's ARC?

So far I haven't been impressed with room correction systems, but that's perhaps because I haven't used a good one yet, just Pioneer and Yamaha's versions?

@SOIX

Thanks for all the tips!

Once I get a new processor I'll spend some more time setting up the Sub. So far I've just used B&W recommendations on crossover etc. There's one more location that might work, and it would be in front of a stone / brick fireplace rather than a plasterboard wall. Yeah the acoustics in my living room are baaad.