Having used the AVM70 for about 5 months, I would like to share my findings and user experience as follows:
Anthem® | A/V Processor | AVM 70 | Specifications (anthemav.com)
anthem-avm-70-8k-spec-sheet-rev0.pdf (anthemav.com)
Anthem MRX 740 & 1140 AV Receivers Comparison Bench Test Results! | Audioholics
Official Anthem AVM 70/90 Owners Thread | AVS Forum
Anthem AVM70 Review (AV Processor) | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
AVM70 feature highlights:
- Web interface that offers very good control of the unit.
- Has a nice looking phone app, for some reasons, it is still in beta version.
- DTS:X pro promised in the early days apparently won’t be for the AVM70 but may still be available for the AVM90 eventually. I only use 7.1.4 so there is no need for the X version anyway, my room is too small for 15 speaker channels.
- It has “virtual inputs”, that you can create to select specific features you want such as ARC on/off, sound modes, speaker profiles, input trims, lip sync etc.
- Built in Chromecast.
- Measurement kit includes a real mic stand that is of very high quality and easy to use.
- They don’t tell you which dac chips are used, but their customer support did confirm they substituted the AK4490 with ESS chips after the AKM factory fire. They claimed to use the ES9038Q2M, but without a teardown, it is unclear if they use that one for all channels or only the “main channels”. There are definitely other lower quality chips such as the ES9010K2M and PCM5100(or 01) on the top board. Not: someone took a photo of the ES90102M from the top.
- Specified pre out voltage is 10.7 V maximum, at <0.1%, that means this thing can drive any power amps with ease, including the AHB2 that has relatively low gain.
- Analog to Digital: I am really impressed to see that Anthem used an ADC chip that has excellent specs, that should guarantee transparent ADC such that I feel good using analog inputs and still have ARCG on.
Features some may consider desirable on a US$3,999 unit, but unfortunately, not available:
- Balanced analog inputs
- Front access I/Os
- One button to
select (edit: there is a button to select input but not "switch", such as from input 1 to input 7) inputs (like D+M’s) on the remote. That makes it difficult to setup my Harmony 650 for input selection. Some users claimed they were able to do it.
- Audio file info, such 24/192, DSD 11.2 kHz etc. on-screen display
- DLNA streaming (Build in Chromecast seems limited to PCM48 kHz only
Bugs:
There is a long list of FW updates, more than 10, as shown in the following link:
I am not aware of any bugs that would really bother me any more as of now, but there are still recent posts related to the fan issues, that is, it would start even when the unit feels cool and is well ventilated, and it would sound loud enough to be audible. It apparently only affects some units, strange, but seems to be true based on forum posts.
ARC Genesis:
The mic kit is absolutely fantastic, very good build quality, looks nice, and very functional. The mic itself looks like the Umik-1. I would pay $200 for the mic kit, but it is included in the price.
Bug? The interface is quite nice, comparable to the $200 Audyssey MultEQ-X's, but it does not offer the same level of flexibity and tweakability. You can save multiple ARCG runs on you PCs, and each one can have up to 4 different profiles. I found that when you upload the file to the unit, if you don't cycle power the unit, something may get messed up, in my case, it would cause the front left channel (possibly other channels as well) to level to increase by about 2 to 3 dB, resulting in channel unbalance that one may or my not notice when watching movies. I reported this the Anthem and after a few email exchanges, the rep seemed to agree it could be a bug. I am not concerned about this at all because as long as I cycle power once, everything would be back to normal, so it is a harmless, friendly bug (if it is...)
It allows manual adjustments to the deep bass (from 50 Hz down) and room gain by adjusting the center frequency and gain, a bit like the PEQ gain and Q, vs Audyssey and Dirac Live that allows you custom the target quite freely, though not in ridiculous ways. I ‘ve the feeling that ARCG is probably still PEQ based…, similar to Yamaha's (if I am right about that but obviously I could be all wrong).
Regardless, despite many online rave reviews by users and professional reviews, I have not been able to replicate the results obtainable by Audyssey and/or Dirac Live, when comparing my REW graphs for two channel frequency response, impulse response etc., based on per channel and both channel with two subs running. That is the case not just for the mmp, but for other seat positions as well.
With tweaking though, I am still able to get very similar FR to that achieved by Audyssey, still not as tight, but close enough.
My only cautionary note on this is, without the deep bass and room gain tweaks, I found the bass from below 50 Hz lacking, in fact ARCG appeared to have created a bigger and worse suck out in that range than with it turned right off. If this happens to my setup, I have to assume it could happen to others too. The fact that the vast majority of the users like ARCG a lot, I am hesitant to say anything bad about it, though I suspect in some case, users may either not have the room modes I have, and/or they simply didn’t know what they missed because they had nothing to compared with, and they typically trust those predicted FR graphs generated by the ARCG software.
EDIT: One other negative about ARCG, the calibration chirp is very loud, did not measure it but I bet it is likely about 85 dB. Not a big deal, but I wish Anthem would lower that to 70 to 75 dB.
That’s about what I have to say for now, and will just add to it if I have more facts and findings.
Example of RC results comparison for the range 15 - 300 Hz.
My subjective measurements:
Movies, even some YT videos, sound amazing. Music sounds great too, I feel no need to spend US$ 4,000 more for the AVM90. I am very happy with the audio and video performance of the AVM70.
