Anthem D1 A/V Processor

[steve]

Audioholics "First Look" of the new Anthem D1 A/V Processor has been published. If you are thinking about owning this new processor, feel free to join the discussions. If you are a current owner of the new Anthem D1, please provide us your feedback so that others may consider this new product offering.

Audioholics Anthem D1 First Look

[Jaycan]

Hmmm. So no firewire, no architectural provision to handle either audio (multichannel) or video (DVI/HDMI) in the digital domain. How is this possible? Why release this hi-end unit for future hardware upgrade? This makes no sense, and there is no way I would buy the Statement with these very poor oversights.

I agree for the most part. That said, there is plenty of word floating around that makes it seem like Anthem may rectify these issues (at least partially) but looking at the rear panel it's not exactly obvious how they could.

Beyond the blank firewire panel there's no obvious space to add i/o...


We'll see I suppose.

[LEVESQUE]

Nick from SF just confirm to me by E-mail that they are planning firewire, HDMI v2 and video transcoding by the end of this year for the D1.

And SF are one of the few companies out there to actually deliver the goods when they say something like this. I know, I was an AVM20 owner.

That's why I did made the switch from the AVM20 to the D1/P5 combo. Because I was totally satisfied by the customer services and the upgrade policies of SF (hardware and firmware).

And after 2 weeks, I'm totally satisfied with the D1/P5 combo. I still have another 2 weeks to try it and decide if I will keep it or not, but so far so good!

Awesome combo!

[Jaycan]

Ok, but why did they rush the processor to the market? What was the rush? Depending on your point of view, this could be interpreted as poor management. This may not matter much since they apparently have a good track record of fieldware upgrades and decent customer service.

[Diablo]

They originally released the AVM20 as V1.0 which was 5.1 only. They later released V2.0 which had a processor upgrade enabling 7.1 and other things. The price of the upgrade was 300.00, which was the exact amount the V2.0 M.S.R.P. went up. So early adopters were not penalized, and if you had no need for the new feature set, you didn't have to pay for it. I'm sure they're using the same upgrade model here. There will be a charge for the upgrade, with a corresponding hike in the M.S.R.P.

Receive my D1 a month or so ago. Finally got it tune with my new Monitor Audio Silver S8 speakers.
It does sound very smooth. Well detailed on a 7.1 surround system.
Easy to set up, very versatile.
I however, deplore the lack of information from the set up menu to the RGB signal output. Not a big problem, but could have been nice, instead of flipping between S-Video to RGB. Also it could have been a nice feature to get it to up convert, so my projector could have been set up on one memory only. But again like I said not a big problem.
I like the multi zone feature.
Nice to have the repeater link at the back of the unit, I don't need to rpocess the remote information via an out box. Just got my infra-red repeater directly connected to the back of the unit with the flasher link to other units. Two might not be enough however, I'M already full.

Quality wise, very fluid sounding system I got them match wtih the P2 Statement and AV7 for the surround mode, using the extra 2 output from this amp to power my zone speakers. Great idea and very affordable.
Hope this help.
JimmyM@videotron.ca
Montreal Canada

I have had my D1 for 3 weeks and I am very satisfied. I sold my AVM20 for it so I already was familiar with their sound. I have Tyler Acoustic speakers and a Gemstone Blue Diamond amp. I may actually be content for a while. The rain scene at the beginning of OPEN RANGE made me reach for an umbrella and the Gunfight scene made my chocolate lab jump about 2ft off the floor. If you want to "try out" your HT you won't find any better scenes than that movie.

Gene