Anthems new receivers? "Yawwwnnnifers". Not that I care much about up-scaling, but what feature do they *really* have on Denon, Marantz and Yammy? Ok, we can go on about the quality of their amps, the solid build and their proprietary ARC, bit in the end, what do they bring to the game? And let me state, no hate here, I want, no, NEED something stateside to bring it to the eastern coalition, but, feature-wise, I see nothing but 2014, easily challenged by the Eastern Status Coalition. The Asians are killing it. Cheap audio, ftw.
I read this, it's not bashing, it almost pointing out all the positives, then saying its not good enough? I have Marantz, I have had Anthem, both have their positives and negatives, but it does bring some unique things to the table, especially with the 1120. If I could have one receiver that does 11 channels, that is a huge plus.
1. They do have excellent quality in their amps, here are some Specific differences:
MRX 1120 has 11 Channels of amplification, which is 7.x.4 Dolby Atmos in one box, which every other model I have looked at only has 9, so you won't have to do 7.x.4 with 2 channels of external amplification.
DTS XFI - Not sure if this is that great, but brings something new to the table other receivers don't: DTS’ Play-Fi multiroom wireless streaming, which allows the receiver to transmit high-resolution audio (24bit/192kHz max) to a litany of wireless speakers and sound bars from multiple brands, including Definitive Technology, Polk, Harman Kardon, Pardigm, Martin Logan, and others.
Up-Scaling may not be important to you, but for those who are old school and have a ton of old DVDs (in my case on a media server) the Up-scaling on the Anthem has always been very good, not to say it's bad on Marantz or Denon.
Both ARC and Audyssey have their advantages in room correction and it has ARC has been beefed up in this iteration with greater flexibility (with ARC not a direct comparison to Audyssey.)
My point being, I wouldn't be so quick to discount them without all the facts yet.