Improving the Musicality of a Home Theather

Welcome @hondaron , I have a 9.2.7 immersive audio setup you can check out in my virtual system. Upgrading your Blueray to an Apple streamer for movies is going backward. Discs are the higher level source. Upgrading to an Apple streamer for Apple Spatial Audio (atmos music) is a must. You have already done the heavy lifting and got your equipment.

There is ONE thing you should do now while your amp is still breaking in. Checkout my thread on setting up your room for Atmos, the Dolby specs contain angles to place your speakers. Follow the bed channels to the letter. The height channels we can discuss depending on your room. Next steip is post your system and pics if you can in your profile "Virtual System" page and we will get you to where you wanna be. Enjoy.

As for alternate sources it will depend on the type of files you listen to. if you rip your files to a NAS, if you like gaming, if you like to steam in atmos or dts, or dd, etc.

As for cables you will have long runs, my preference is Mogami (also sold as worlds best cables on amazon)

PS- If you add 2 more speakers for overheads move the matching B&W’s from the rear to rear height channels and get matching Revels for the rear surrounds.

You made a very astute decision getting a matched Anthem system (processor and amps), nice job and it seems you got a great audio dealer too.

the installer, Audio Breakthroughs in Manhassett, NY did a fancy ARC computer room correction

Great, then you know you are setup correctly.

As for sources it depends on the files you use. If you are using discs (CD,SACD, BRD,UHD, etc) I would recommend a Sony X-800M2. The Panasonic player is nice but lacks the SACD features of the Sony.

If you are using files that you have ripped and stored on a NAS I would recommend the Zidoo Z9X media player, fantastic device,

If you want to stream Netflix, Amazon Video, Disney Plus etc. if you are in the Apple ecosystem get the newer ATV 4K. The Firestick has poor SQ and is crammed with ads. Nvidia Shield is swamped with google ads. The X-Box Series S or X are superb for both streaming and gaming. If you get the Series X you also get a blueray player.

The Anthem piece is superb, you will really enjoy it. As for video I use an Epson PJ in the media room and a Sony 4K TV in the man cave.
After your system is well broken in and you have the sources you like the first upgrade I would do (even before adding two more height channels for atmos) is getting a second sub. It isn’t for the volume of bass, its for the smoothness.

Great, FWIW I just got this blueray of Stevie Nicks Gold Tour, I think it was pretty good. Your Anthem AVM 70 has a feature to upmix surround sound with either the Dolby Sorround or DTS Neural X upmixer to take full advantge of your setup. Post if you have questions:

There are some settings you need to tweak in the Sony player.

see pg 24 in the manual

Set the BD Secondary audio to OFF (so you can bitstream out to your receiver/processor)

Turn DSEE HX ON (upsamples audio to hirez)