Ultimately, it will and should depend on your own choosing from personal trial and error, or you'll otherwise never know what's possible in your own system, with your own setup and tastes!- FTR. I however simply could not ignore (nor merely treat acoustic problems inherent in virtually all a acoustic home spaces, and expect that to be sufficient to getting accurate reponse/sound! Needs lots more than just some wall n boundary treatments to fix!!) the INFINITELY invuable EQs these digital processors offer these days, as they most often dramatically improved fundamental sound quality in even the most difficult acoustic spaces (most all domestic rooms!) -UNREPLACEABLE!
Yes, I've done many an audiophile grade EQless setups in my day, especially for 2 ch hiend applications. And, as good as that can sound (limitations..always), more often than not, I wished I could have eq d out my bass problems, and then I'd end up with something like the Rives PARC in the system anyway! What a difference it ALWAYS made!
Especially given this gentleman is using for HT duties primarily, I just think the EQ benefits far outweigh the negatives here. And, in this case, the Rotel (not as refined as others, but descent n dynamic for movies!) nor the NAD ( history with quality control on this line.. ??!), neither of these offer EQ if I'm mistaken..? That's a downer n negatives for me, personally. (like the Rotel for movies, prefer the NAD sound for music )(Anthem also is musical!) but think more of what you'll need from the Anthem, of the 3 myself.
If you found, however, that you absolutely needed to go audiophile traditional (no dig EQ n extra processing )more direct 2 ch pure signal from your music, you might just consider bypassing the processor all together and just get a 2 CH dedicated Pre! (Just loop ur EQ capable processor of choice into that for movies).
Just suggestions of course. but how large is ur space? What's acoustics n set up like? (If you run 2 ch setup now, what's the sound response measuring like, and or do you think you like the sound from the speakers as is??) Remember though, even if you had the luxury of hearing any of these choices in some other setup, you can't expect sound being the same in ur setup, in ur room, with ur different equipment! That's also precisely why the EQ helps out -Fix room unknowns n issues! FYI.
I just think the Anthem offers it all with the lest compromises plus superb processing and sound and build quality. Excellent product!
