Processor sound comparison- Anthem avm90 vs NAD M17 V2i

Just a thought.   I have had 4 Anthems - the latest is an AVM-70.  There is no doubt that they sound the best in my opinion, but they fail, and don't really function smoothly.   I purchased an Onkyo for my girlfriend and I was amazed at how seamless it worked.   Had Dirac built in.   Hooks up with ARC no problem.   Bluetooth, no problem.   Wireless, no problem.   Doesn't sound as good as the Anthems - but I would rather have something that works and doesn't stop working.   I only bought the Anthems because my dealer was so fantastic - but they need some new software writers.  I might look at the Integra next time.   Never looked at NAD because they had lots of manufacturing issues in the past (cold solder joints), but maybe that has been resolved.

@emergingsoul They are both not very good.

Get the Marantz AV10 (You will get better sound than Storm or some Trinnovs without the latter’s headaches).

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/marantz-av10-av-processor-review.50041/

It got a golfing panther at ASR (Prepros don't usually get a golfing panther with those dudes). But, forget the measurements... it’s a very nice sounding unit with critical features that you’d need for proper execution.

I have owned the Audiocontrol Maestro X7, Marantz AV8802A, McIntosh MX122, Outlaw 976 in my main HT/Audio system. I do 5.1. Of all of those I I give the edge to the Maestro X7. However, I came across a great deal on the Krell Foundation UHD 4K and decided to pull the trigger. I bought it used. I have found the Krell to be a cut above all of the others for movies and music. Very simple setup (that's the one knock I had on the Maestro was it was more complicated than all the others), and easy to integrate. The Krell will not be going anywhere. I have finally found my HT Processor that truly shines for both music and movies.

You should be able to find the Krell for around 3.5K on the used market. I would recommend this above all the others I have mentioned. The only knock on the Krell was it doesn't have a true "5 channel/All channel stereo" mode for music listening. It offers a "Party" DSP mode which comes close but is not a true All/5 channel stereo...

Good luck!

Skip the Anthem, for two reasons. It doesn’t handle 2 channel surround correctly and the room correction isn’t all that. It doesn’t do a great job of integrating the loudspeakers and doesn’t allow you to manually adjust either. The latter is only useful for EQ geeks like me who know exactly what they want.

Consider the Marantz units with advanced Audyssey long before Anthem. Haven’t heard NAD.

Also, maybe it's just me but previous gen Anthem processors sounded better, plain and simple.

Marantz processors are incredibly complicated and the independent channel capability is very limited.  The interface is also quite disappointing. I have owned a Marantz processor and it's sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I think the sound was pretty good but it was a pain to work with and required a lot of Power cycling because the arc connectivity got corrupted all the time.  My dealer recommended I use the optical connection, he does this a lot.