Anthem ARC - Well, it's not that great.

Hey Kota, no. As I mentioned, I really don’t have time to do much of a write up. I just didn’t like the results. Compared to nothing, they deadened the sound. Compared to my hand tuned EQ, they never managed to create a coherent sound stage.

I’m afraid I have other things which take up my time and attention. All I can do is just say I’m not impressed. Further, I can see why listeners would be so enamoured of Atmos if Dolby Digital and DTS only got to this level of performance. Hoenstly, prior to Atmos, DD and DTS were really amazing. This is not even close to the best I have heard in my living room.

Also, I think the mic is kind of crap int he upper octaves, so while I don’t have the time to post anything, I would not be using the Anthem measurements as a way of understanding how well it works. It needs third party validation.

In particular, as someone who has actually installed and worked on the electronics for actual theaters, I'm really not impressed with multi point microphone techniques for small listening spaces.  There was a blog  post by the president of Bryston on this and I think he was more or less accurate that it doesn't work nearly as well in a home.

Also, I think the mic is kind of crap int he upper octaves

The mic I use for Audyssey Pro is calibrated to my system and software, it is a step up from the mic's supplied by either Marantz or Anthem.

There was a blog post by the president of Bryston on this

He’s got a dog in the race but I know the processor they have that does Atmos uses Dirac.

Hoenstly, prior to Atmos, DD and DTS were really amazing

You nailed it on this one. The budget studios get for the blueray mix is peanuts compared to the film track. I stream MCH with an X-Box which has an amazing feature. It has a menu to select the format you want to stream in, lossless 2,5,or 7 channel, DD, DTS, and with a paid upgrade Atmos or DTS-X. If I am watching a musical from the 40’s and want to stream it in atmos, done. If I am listening to tidal stereo recordings and want to stream them in DTS, done. Live recordings sound better to me upmixed in DTS. House and pop sound better in my room in atmos. Sunday morning I like two channel stereo with my coffee, and on and on we go.

@erik_squires 

interested if you have ever used/ heard a Trinnov altitudeprocessor. I’m in the middle of a way too long, home theater, build and have been considering the anthem Avm90, the new Marantz cinema, or the trinnov.  The only challenge being the trinnov dealer is many hours away and twice the price as the other alternatives. Those who have it seem to swear by it but I find that when people buy expensive things they usually think they’re better anyways, sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it is not.  It is supposed to have absolutely amazing room correction and bass correction, great support and easy upgrade ability.  

Hi @esthlos13 - Unfortunately I have not. Maybe I should solicit processors to review? :)

I may suffer from NIH (not invented here) syndrome when it comes to room integration. I really liked the setup I had when I was using hand crafted curves via miniDSP, so I could be that guy who is only satisfied when he makes it himself. :)

OTOH, I had really high hopes for ATC to simplify the amount of gear and cables I needed to have not to mention the time and effort needed for calibration.  At least with Anthem, I was not at all impressed.

What firmware are you using?