Expectations

We have been waiting with great anticipation over the last year, ever since a picture was leaked online of the new MRX & AVM models, and finally they are here. Anthem have been at the top of the tree for mid-price AVR amplifier and AV Processors for over a decade. Nick and I were the very first retailers of Anthem AV in the UK over 10 years ago and over the years Anthem products have always been at the core of what we were able to offer a customer who demanded excellent sound quality, reliability and some of the best all round performance in the marketplace at its given price. Over the last couple of years DIRAC has been added to many of Anthems competitors’ products to address the disparity between Anthems class leading room compensation system and the lack of any decent alternative, for several years the pack were playing catch up, even if they did not want to admit it.

A bit of History

Anthem have always had their own approach, when the original ARC (Anthem Room Correction) was launched it was a revolution in what as calibrators we could do with home cinema sound. Previously the best we had up until Anthem launched the D2V & MRX300, 500 & 700 was Audyssey Pro or a PEQ somewhat archaic and cumbersome EQ systems which at the time did a job (albeit after jumping through several hoops) and it was not readily accessible to the novice home user, only to trained dealers or acoustic professionals.

So, what makes Anthems approach so unique? Well, the main reason would be the amount of research they did and then the implementation of what they learned from that. The kernel started in the late 1980s and was a joint venture between the Canadian National Research Council and the Canadian Audio Research Consortium.  The original objective was to expand on what was already known about of the nature of sound and how to analyse and address the adverse effects of sound within rooms. The research originally partly funded by Paradigm and Anthem resulted in each of its contributors ending up with a prototype unit capable of making room measurements and running room correction algorithms. This research is still considered in many acoustic circles as the gold standard for acoustic research in this area and the Anthem ARC remains the only true direct descendant from this core research.

The MRX740 – Looks

Onto the unit itself. I had around 1 weeks’ notice that the MRX740 was going to arrive, so in that week before I ran an Anthem MRX1120 at home to familiarise myself with a product from the previous generation. When the unit arrived it unsurprisingly looks exactly like the leaked photo of almost a year ago and in the same style as the stereo Anthem STR products which have been on the market for some time. There are several things carried over from the STR including the general design, internal menu structure and my first bug bear, screen display size. Clearly Anthem have looked to use the same screen in the MRX range as they have in the STR range and to me it does sit a little awkwardly in situ. Adding a different larger screen on the unit itself would no doubt have cost more money, but I cannot help but think they have missed a trick here. The only reason I can think this did not concern them too much is the addition of the IP config set-up which I will cover later, something which does soften the blow of the tiny screen on the unit itself. The back panel itself looks quite frankly like an AV amplifier, I will not dwell on this too much as there is not a huge amount to say, enough to say the layout is fine and looks very much like previous MRX units. The remote is almost identical to the older one, it feels a bit cheap but does at least light up in the dark. Most people at this level I would expect to use a Harmony for control so again, not a deal breaker just a small gripe. In the box you get the unit and the usual ARC set-up kit, by far the most comprehensive package of any AV amplifier which includes its own well-built microphone stand.

The MRX Range Menu system

There are really 3 ways to set the amplifier up, I will start with the worst and work my way up. The on-screen (TV) menu on the MRX is quite frankly awful. It is hard to believe, but this feature has gone backwards from the previous amplifier range. I am sure this is to do with the manufacturing platform rather than a straight decision from Anthem as I have seen this style implemented before, but it is poor. It is next to useless for setting up the amplifier and really is of only any use for flagging up what volume you are at and the codec you are running. The onscreen display on the amplifier itself is a more familiar sight, this pretty much clones the old on-screen set-up from the previous generation and anyone who owned a 20 or 10 series Anthem will find it a familiar sight, easy to use and extremely flexible. If the set-up options ended there, Anthem would be in trouble, thankfully they have added an all-new IP config set-up which comes racing from last place in the final furlong to win the whole race by a nose, it really is fantastic. Type the IP address of your unit into your internet browser and hey, presto, all the settings at your fingertips in a well laid out easy to understand menu system. Once you have changed the name on all your inputs and settings it really does leave others at this price point playing catch-up, in realty once you have used it you could never go back.

Most things in the menu system are familiar, one major addition is the ability to re-matrix the amplifier channels for use on other speakers, a major omission on previous models and one Anthem have clearly listened to dealers and customers and implemented. Amp matrixing allows you to replace certain amp channels with external amplification and still be able to use the amplifier channels to power other speakers, for example it is common to use an external amplifier to power the Front Left and Front Right speakers if they require more power, you can use this menu to assign the amplifier channels originally used for these speakers to power other speakers such as Height or Zone 2.

The New MRX – Sound & Video Without ARC

As always when a new amplifier or processor makes its way into my cinema at home, it is always set-up in a considerably basic, old school way. Distances with a laser measure and sound with an SPL. I tend to run it this way for at least a week if not more. This is an invaluable tool to be able to judge the core performance and natural sound of a product but also really helps when it comes to acoustic correction as you can really hear what the correction is trying to achieve. The quickest and easiest way to tell an AV amplifiers raw performance is with two channel music, this gives a good guide as to what the rest of the listening experience is going to be like and keeps things relatively simple for assessment purposes. In comparison to the previous 1120 the raw performance of the 40 series seemed better to me, fuller with more authority. It does sound like both the preamplifier stage and the power delivery has had a bit of a makeover, not a rehashed rebadged 20 series. During all my tests without the ARC calibration active the Anthem never missed a beat sonically or on the video front, it passed all the required resolutions without a hitch including my fussy XBOX which previously had a meltdown with the Denon AVC-X6700 and AVC-X6500 I tested recently. No video snow, dropouts or any weird audio codec clicks, or pops were heard at all. Once I was confident of the core sound and the stability of the HDMI platform, I moved onto the ARC EQ.

Sound & Video with EQ – ARC

Initially at launch the Anthem did not have an active ARC calibration system, it was still under development. This did not phase me too much as I was not at that point in its assessment. Fortunately, when I was ready, a BETA version of the EQ popped up on Anthems US website, so I got to work. Given it was a BETA release and not a full one I was poised ready for some issues but only really experienced two, one slightly more major than the other. On previous versions of ARC, it was always best practice to set the calibration level and distances prior to running an ARC calibration. Distances can technically be done before or afterwards, but the calibration level is important as this sets the test tone system wide at the required 75db, this did not work on my unit and as a result the system wanted to calibrate some 10db lower than reference, effectively meaning my final levels were boosted more than normal in the results with some speakers having had some 10db of gain applied to them. While the calibration worked and sounded technically correct, logically it may well mean the system is not working optimally with regards to the signal capture and its S/N ratio during playback, particularly if you listen at reference. At sensible and loud listening volumes it sounded fine and did its job perfectly well. Having fed this back to Anthem I believe this is something they are working to refine, so the good news is the sound should only get better over time.

There have been some refinements of the ARC Genesis calibration system over the years, and you can really hear it in its current iteration. I would argue that for the novice, ARC is the best EQ system on the market (ignoring cost). Not because it necessarily does anything dramatically different at its core, but it presents the information and more importantly the adjustment of that information in a very controlled way, having a slider for each major adjustment. This is done in more focussed way than say DIRAC which does somewhat present you with a metaphoric white sheet of paper and expect you to copy the Mona Lisa, the Anthem gives you the sheet of paper with the outline pre drawn. It also adds in a decent automatic curve which stems from the acoustic research mentioned previously, again compared to DIRAC’s default curve, the Anthem effectively puts character into the sound as standard, in a very balanced even-handed way. Most importantly without the need for a four-day training session and an acoustics degree. If there is one criticism of the automatic calibration mode, it errs on the side of caution and is very safe sounding. There is a definite argument you can push the system harder in Pro mode, but you need to be careful. Setting a flat response on a subwoofer or speaker which rolls off hard and early will not end well, so you do need to be cautious when adjusting the extremities of the frequency range.

There are a few things I really loved on ARC. Firstly, the ability to open a file and edit it without the unit being on. You can also open two files at once to compare them directly side by side. Saving multiple EQ files with slightly different versions enables you to fine tune the system. Couple that with fast upload times means that you are not waiting around for ever to hear the result. One odd thing I did find was some strange system feedback at the end of a file upload, this lasted for around 3 seconds and sounded like the mic was still on and connected and feeding back on itself, even though there was no mic connected.

In summation, the result of all this fiddling was a huge full soundstage and one that is awfully familiar from other versions of ARC, essentially if you were to close your eyes the room sounds twice as big as it is. A night and day difference from ARC not being on and really pulled together the sound for movies with seamless transition from front to back and good dialogue presence. Overall a very balanced sound. Automatic bass management was also fantastic, crossovers were not something I adjusted manually. I have always found ARC sets this extremely well and is one of the reasons why it sounds so right and creates the soundstage that it does.

Conclusion

Overall, I have been really impressed with the Anthem while it was in the house. It gave a huge soundstage, and the EQ was balanced and not heavy handed. I have already remotely edited several customers EQ profiles, something tricky to do without hearing the system but with good input from the customer it is possible, most seem to be happy with tweaked results. The Anthem sits favourably alongside its peers and is well worthy of an audition. If you want good even-handed sound with scale, a quick accurate set-up procedure and solid upgradable HDMI performance the Anthem might well be a great upgrade to your existing system.

The Anthem was tested with the following system.

Technics SL1210Mk2 Worx Edition w. Sumiko Songbird

Hegel V10 Phono Stage

BT Vision 4K UHD

NVIDIA Shield w KODI 4K

XBOX One X

Apple TV 4K

Ascendo Subwoofer

Amphion Front End

Procella Surround Speakers

The Anthem was tested with the following content.

Underworld – Second Toughest in The Infants – Vinyl

The Heliocentrics & Lloyd Miller – OST – Vinyl

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, LSO: Promises – Vinyl

King Geedorah – Take Me to Your Leader – Vinyl

A Quiet Place – Full 4K Rip – 3D Audio

30 Days of Night – BD – Dolby Surround – Upmixed

Night of The Generals – BD – Dolby Surround – Upmixed

Blade Runner 2049 – UHD 4K Disk- Atmos

The Mandalorian – Atmos – Apple TV

BT Ultimate – Football – Atmos 3D Audio

Super Lucky’s Tale – XBOX