Anthem AV is the sweet spot of affordable, feature rich, good soundding and great room correction. I really dislike the Marantz and Onkyo offerings.
On the high end is Datasat and Theta, but I always think Theta is on the brink of vanishing.
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Which model of Anthem AV are you talking about. Because I also bought Anthem MRZ 540 from amazon last month. But as an absolute disaster and I had to immediately return it. Thanks to Amazon return policy I had no issue in returning. I don't know how was your experience but I would definitely not recommend it. But Anthem MRX 740 is slightly better. You can try. |
I was having anxiety living with my Yamaha for almost 5 years and not liking the sound. It had tons of options and modes to pick from but just sounded terrible (as compared to anything 2 channel). I took the advice of others and bought an Anthem, used 720, and the sound is stellar. Not many options to choose from, but once you run ARC, the sound is so sublime, I don't need to tweak more. Very happy I bit the bullet and was also able to get some decent money for my used 2060. I believe the latest designs from the major players have pretty good sound from the reviews so for sure Anthem is not the only game in town for good audio. |
Sorry @erik_squires, but no. Just...no. I worked for Magnolia for a bit, and of all the AVRs out there Marantz was the LEAST harsh and bright sounding — polar opposite actually — so I’d like to know how you’re coming up with this assessment because it’s just COMPLETELY counter to all my actual experience.
So @emergingsoul, how do ya like burning those tubes for TV and movie watching? That’d grind my gears, but that’s me. |
I agree that marantz is anything but bright and harsh. If anything, it has the reputation of being on the warm and comfortable side. I own a 5012 as my Atmos. 5.1.2 HT receiver and use a pm7000n super integrated amp in my office 2 ch system. Very happy with both. For my more serious 2ch systems I shoot higher but I really like the two marantz units I use for their applications |
Fail. Except the last sentence, which if you do, you'll find that Marantz leans toward the warm side. I've never heard a "bright" Marantz component. I have an AV7704 in my main HT system and a KI-Pearl SACD player. If you do go with a Marantz processor, search for a shootout between the 77XX series and 88XX. The bottom line was that everyone in the group was unable to detect any sonic differences between the two series, so unless you need some connections or features on the 88XX series that aren't included in the 77XX series, you're better off going with the 77XX unit. |
^^^^ That wasn’t the 8805 series but the 8802 and after owing the last three Marantz pre/pro’s coming from Anthem pre/pro’s (No native DSD so said bye bye) The 8805 is more on the transparent side and no warmish but closer to neutral, it was tuned by Ken’s team and it excels as 2/ch pre/amp as well. I know of many using it with amp’s one would pair with a dedicated preamp. |
@big_greg I do you like the KI-Pearl SACD player, I've always wanted to take the plunge and now is looking like a good time but would need to put off my preamp venture I was going to try next. |
I have had the 8805 in my system. It has excellent bass and midbass fullness and strength. Excellent midrange and impact. The high frequencies are softened and rolled off somewhat. I don't know that you would notice this unless you did a side-by-side comparison with an Anthem or Krell Foundation. The 880x has a main power supply that is twice as large as the 770x. 880x I think is a total of 40,000uf. The 770x is 20,000uf. Of course, the 880x has all the discrete analog output channels on individual boards (13 of them in the 8805). I would think the sound between 770x and 880x would be similar. The 880x would likely have stronger/fuller bass and midbass and an overall smoother sound. I was very impressed with the 8805. The high frequency difference only became apparent when I hooked my Krell S1200U back into the mix. |
@big_greg I do you like the KI-Pearl SACD player, I've always wanted to take the plunge and now is looking like a good time but would need to put off my preamp venture I was going to try next. I don't want to derail the thread, but to answer your question, I'm very happy with it. I heard that the price of the KI-Ruby SACD player dropped and was considering an upgrade to the Ruby. I spent some time listening to the Pearl this weekend (I don't spin CDs very often) and was reminded how good it is and decided not to make a change. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a PM. |
Stick to better sounding speakers, Go Active! Look at the Quested Cinema Range of Active Speakers, Gives you remote Active Amplifiers and Gain controls over every single driver.
Spend less on the processor, Spend more on the room. Avoid Room Correction and other DSP within the Chain. Keep the signal as pure as possible. |
