Receiver to use as pre/pro

[Arjun]

Price check

Any idea what a used Anthem AVM50 v1.2 would run? Its a demo model from a local installer. Does not have ARC.

I know new Anthem AVM50 v1.3 run ~$5,500 with ARC and ~$4,000 without ARC. Hopefully there's heft depreciation on these things

I just spoke to the guy - he wants $2,400 for the AVM 50 v1.2 (no ARC). Its a demo unit, 8 months old, comes with full warranty. Does the price seem fair?

 

[Lordoftherings]

Any idea what a used Anthem AVM50 v1.2 would run? Its a demo model from a local installer. Does not have ARC.

I know new Anthem AVM50 v1.3 run ~$5,500 with ARC and ~$4,000 without ARC. Hopefully there's heft depreciation on these things

I just spoke to the guy - he wants $2,400 for the AVM 50 v1.2 (no ARC). Its a demo unit, 8 months old, comes with full warranty. Does the price seem fair?

The AVM 50 with HDMI v1.2 is a very nice Pre/Pro, worth it's Gold.
The price is more than fair.

Just be aware though that HDMI v1.2 will not decode the new high res. audio codecs, if it's important to you.
* But the audio quality of this unit is incredible, top notch for sure.
Plus a lot of tweeking settings to take full benefit of this splendid component.

** Sound quality wise, it is a good step above Onkyo Pre/Pros.
But the Onkyo Pro PR-SC886P, for the price, is an incredible deal.
So is the Integra DHC-9.9
Plus the Onkyo and Integra have all the new decoders for these high res. audio codecs.
Also, they have the HQV Reon VX video processor, excellent one, with ISF certification.
Also, they have Audyssey MultEQ XT (the DHC-9.9 is even Audyssey Pro capable, not sure about the 886 though.)

))) Do some research, read the reviews, check their feature sets, and pick your poison.

 

[Arjun]

Ended up getting the Anthem AVM 50 this afternoon - the dealer gave it to me for $2K even. Not bad for a demo unit used for a year.

Just hooked everything up - sounds great.

New pre-pro today, seeing Mastodon live tomorrow - shaping up to be an awesome halloween. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[WmAx]

** Sound quality wise, it is a good step above Onkyo Pre/Pros.
But the Onkyo Pro PR-SC886P, for the price, is an incredible deal.

Sheer speculation. The chances of their being ANY sound difference (assuming sound F/X are set to OFF) is incredibly improbable.

-Chris

 

[WmAx]

Hi Chris,

Interesting! I was just thinking about you...

* According to many owners of both these components (Pre/Pros, Anthem vs Onkyo),
there is quite a discernable sound difference, and this from astute owners.
I don't make that up, I read a lot about these Pre/Pros at AVS, and from professional reviewers.

Cheers,
Bob

Many so-called 'astute' owners/reviewers also make the same types of claims for wire/cables, CD players and just about anything else under the sun....

These people always fail to I.D. these things in blinded tests unless one of the items has a substantial measured deviation that is withing the human threshold of audibility(and it takes a massive measurable issue to become audible!).

-Chris

 

[Seth=L]

The science of this is not debatable, making the discernable differences completely wither away. Not saying the Anthem is a bad piece, it's a great piece. It's just not so much better than the Onkyo (or any better) that it warrants paying extra for any reason surrounding what will sound better. I'm sure that anyone that spends more on one pre/pro than another will think it sounds better, unless they want the cheaper one to sound better because it was cheaper, in which case it will sound better. It only sounds better because they want it to, not because it physically does.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hi Chris,

Interesting! I was just thinking about you...

* According to many owners of both these components (Pre/Pros, Anthem vs Onkyo),
there is quite a discernable sound difference, and this from astute owners.
I don't make that up, I read a lot about these Pre/Pros at AVS, and from professional reviewers.

Cheers,
Bob

You 'making it up' is not in question.
What is in question are the reports from those 'astute' owners and 'professional' reviewers.
The question to ask is how were those comparisons conducted? No DBT, no level matching, no trial and correct guess count, leads to questionable outcome from all of those folks

There is a very good reason why we need to do rigorous comparisons to be sure of the answers no matter who conducts them.

 

[jostenmeat]

How about a used Yamaha 663 receiver? They are supposed to have really good D/A converters & preamp section.

It is undoubtedly a great value at its extremely affordable price, but it has limitations such as the inability to matrix bitstreamed lossless codecs, has limited bass mgmt with a universal xover point for all satellites, and also clips btb/wtw for video.

The science of this is not debatable, making the discernable differences completely wither away. Not saying the Anthem is a bad piece, it's a great piece. It's just not so much better than the Onkyo (or any better) that it warrants paying extra for any reason surrounding what will sound better. I'm sure that anyone that spends more on one pre/pro than another will think it sounds better, unless they want the cheaper one to sound better because it was cheaper, in which case it will sound better. It only sounds better because they want it to, not because it physically does.

The argument is heard clearly, however, the Anthem should leave the Onkyo in the dust for video purposes. I know the Anthem would benefit my video tremendously more than the Onkyo if only for the gamma curve adjustability.

 

[Seth=L]

The argument is heard clearly, however, the Anthem should leave the Onkyo in the dust for video purposes. I know the Anthem would benefit my video tremendously more than the Onkyo if only for the gamma curve adjustability.

How does an Anthem processor of the yesteryear with HDMI 1.2 get advanced controls and superior video processing like that? It's got no business doing that.

I was talking on the audio part, which seems to be the hardest hurdle to overcome for a lot of people. Video processing has a very real affect, and I wouldn't debate that with anyone.