Audioholics Anthem STR Pre & Power Amp Review, When?

M

milt1999

Enthusiast
I saw the unboxing video from mid-August but haven't seen the review as of yet.
Is it still happening?
There is a real dearth of reviews on the STR Pre & Power Amp.
Seriously considering the Pre-Amp but have found only one review online.
Thanks
 
M

milt1999

Enthusiast
The lack of published reviews on the well-respected Anthem Statement brand makes me think they may have lost their magic with this gear.
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
The lack of published reviews on the well-respected Anthem Statement brand makes me think they may have lost their magic with this gear.
I’m sure they are fine pieces, if a review is to come I’d think @gene would be doing the measurements. Maybe he can shed some light.
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
Excellent review, and excellent results! I think Anthem did it right, limiting the weight to only 600 lbs, by having taking advantage of the excellent overload capability of well design power transformers instead of using transformer with much larger VA rating for the sake of the useless continuous output that is not required for music and moves.

I wish their engineers answered Gene's question of the balance vs unbalanced preamp output though. The fact is, fully differential or not, the preamp outputs are typically 6 dB hot balanced vs unbalanced and the power amp sensitivities are likewise, 6 dB different the other way around like Gene said. Anthem's response did not fully address Gene's question.
 
M

milt1999

Enthusiast
Yes, just what I've been waiting for an in depth, excellent review. Thanks Gene.
I did not realize that the reviews were more youtube based than website based.

I do find it odd that such a unique piece of gear, the pre-amp, isn't getting greater coverage in the Audio press.
I'm a long time owner of 2 D2s and a P5 and love Anthem gear.
Their amps, especially are really under rated, imo.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I did search for a review, but didn't look for video reviews, don't really want to watch videos vs reading....
 
M

milt1999

Enthusiast
I did search for a review, but didn't look for video reviews, don't really want to watch videos vs reading....
It would seem logical to post links to the video reviews here on the site.
Maybe they are but I haven't found them.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I did search for a review, but didn't look for video reviews, don't really want to watch videos vs reading....
There is a written review forthcoming, don't know when it will be published though.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
I just finished the rather wordy (6200+) review the other day. It should post by the end of next week. I will also be doing a full ARC YT Instructional video by next month so stay tuned...
 
R

Reckel

Audioholic Chief
I just finished the rather wordy (6200+) review the other day. It should post by the end of next week. I will also be doing a full ARC YT Instructional video by next month so stay tuned...
Hey gene quick question. I’ve got a two row theater room, should I run ypao in the middle between both rows or at my main seat which is the middle of second row?
 
M

milt1999

Enthusiast
My anticipation for the STR Pre-Amp is based on this:
Regardless of the bugs that need to be worked out when a products is launched, Anthem fixes them.
In this aspect, Anthem is very much like Oppo is or was.
Their gear is quiet and they use excellent parts.
With the serious advancements in DSP processing power with ARC-2 & given that it's designed to handle ATMOS,
I'm confident that ARC-2 for a 2.x system will have plenty of correction power but as important more EQ filters.
Looking at pre-amps like the new Pass Labs XP-22, the STR compares favorably using a 1 box solution, where Pass uses a 2 box solution & costs 2 1/2 times more than the STR.
 
R

Reckel

Audioholic Chief
My anticipation for the STR Pre-Amp is based on this:
Regardless of the bugs that need to be worked out when a products is launched, Anthem fixes them.
In this aspect, Anthem is very much like Oppo is or was.
Their gear is quiet and they use excellent parts.
With the serious advancements in DSP processing power with ARC-2 & given that it's designed to handle ATMOS,
I'm confident that ARC-2 for a 2.x system will have plenty of correction power but as important more EQ filters.
Looking at pre-amps like the new Pass Labs XP-22, the STR compares favorably using a 1 box solution, where Pass uses a 2 box solution & costs 2 1/2 times more than the STR.
I’m using ypao from Yamaha, was your post for me?
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
So my assumption of them taking advantage of the excellent overload capability of power transformers seem correct. 600 VA or a 400 WX2 8 ohm, 600 WX2 4 ohms rated power amp! At rated output, a class AB power amp's overall efficiency wouldn't be higher than 80%, and assuming a power factor of even as high as 0.85, 600 VA is 510 W. So after considering power factor and efficiency, 600 VA is barely adequate for 400 W output, let alone the 600 W rating for 4 ohms. But then, thanks to Gene, we now know the 800 WX2 into 2 ohms rating is for 3 seconds so that's believable, though Gene couldn't verify it before it tripped. Still, a very smart move on Anthem to go for the more practical high dynamic/short duration rating, a better approach than NAD's imo.. I wonder why they didn't go a little more generous on the caps. Similarly rated Canadian products such as Classe and Bryston's would have twice as much uf.
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Excellent review, and excellent results! I think Anthem did it right, limiting the weight to only 600 lbs, by having taking advantage of the excellent overload capability of well design power transformers instead of using transformer with much larger VA rating for the sake of the useless continuous output that is not required for music and moves.

I wish their engineers answered Gene's question of the balance vs unbalanced preamp output though. The fact is, fully differential or not, the preamp outputs are typically 6 dB hot balanced vs unbalanced and the power amp sensitivities are likewise, 6 dB different the other way around like Gene said. Anthem's response did not fully address Gene's question.
Did you just say limiting the weight to only 600 lbs? Lol good lord what if they had gone all out? :)
 

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