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Anthem MRX Receivers - 310, 510, 710 Owners Thread & Tweaking Guide

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#1 ·
I just received my unit a MRX-510 and did the system configuration in a breeze. This is so much user friendly.


I will start feeding information this week-end.







Anthem just announced their second generation line of 3D ready A/V receivers. The MRX series features three receivers: the MRX 310, MRX 510, and MRX 710.


The MRX 510, and MRX 710 all featuring 7 channels of amplification and 7 HDMI in/2 out.








Link to Anthem MRX Page

http://www.anthemav.com/products/series=mrx-series



Manuals, Data Sheets, and Additional Documentation/Literature:

http://anthemav.com/support/manuals-literature.php



HIGHLIGHTS


•Anthem Room Correction (ARC)

•Video Conversion from Composite Video and Component Video to HDMI

•1080p24 mode

•Dolby Volume

•AM/FM Tuner

DECODING


•Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus

•DTS-HD Master Audio (MRX 710/510)

•DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio

LISTENING MODES


•AnthemLogic – Cinema, Music

•Dolby Pro Logic IIx (Movie, Music, including Center Width, Dimension and Panorama adjustments)

•DTS Neo:6 (Cinema, Music)

•All-Channels (All-Speaker Stereo)

INPUTS


•Analog Video Inputs: 1 Composite + 2 Component

•Digital Audio Inputs: 2 Coaxial + 3 Optical

•5 Stereo Analog RCA Inputs

•HDMI On-Screen Display – setup, video adjustments, status, song/artist info from radio stations


CUSTOM INSTALLATION


•IR Control

•RS-232 Control

•IR Emitter Output

•Trigger Output

•Second Audio Zone

ADDITIONAL FEATURES


•Backlit Remote Control

•Sidemount Rack Kit (sold separately)


WARRANTY


•3 years

Specifications

PREAMPLIFIER

Maximum Output (
 
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#3,979 ·
^ The HDMI and video sections are directly below the cover and make it warm independently of amp load. When the amp section gets hot, the amp fan turns on and blows amp heat out from the side of the chassis.

When ARC targets are met without bottom-end extremes being unduly forced upward, and with sub being flat to at least 80 Hz, all is usually well and this is what your graphs are showing. The 13-14 dB difference in the sub graph between 50 Hz and 77 Hz is exactly the kind of thing that ARC is meant to address. The area around 77 Hz is boosted (there's a design limit to the amount, and your result is within) but at the same time the area around 50 Hz is attenuated by a comparable amount therefore the difference in sub load before vs after ARC can be considered to be negligible. The wiggles in the rolloff region of some other channels are inconsequential because the sub masks them by playing 20-40 dB louder at the same frequencies (ARC does not spend its resources to straighten the inaudible).
 
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#3,984 ·
Thanks Nick. You're the first to mention that the HDMI boards are below the cover and will get hot, that makes sense. I was only concerned about the sub as the manual states that having the green above the red in high amounts isn't advised and you should try and compensate by moving the sub. If my levels are OK then that's good :)
 
#3,986 ·
External DAC, integer mode

Does anyone know what DAC is in these units? I use a third party audio player, Audirvana, and it seems as though the DAC in the receiver does not support integer mode. Does anyone know if this is true?

I am wondering if a decent external DAC sounds better for stereo audio?

I was just surprised I cannot seem to get integer mode to work using cdmi out of my mac into the receiver.

Thanks,
Tim
 
#3,987 ·
As for DAC: if you use ARC, don't. ARC is digital so it would just have to do an ADC too, then use its own DAC afterwards.

Integer mode is like WASAPI for windows right? The MRX supports 16,20,24 bit playback of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192khz, maybe 32khz too. As long as what you play back is one of these, it should work. If not, the problem is unlikely to be in the MRX.
 
#3,994 · (Edited)
If you look hard enough at the mains, the Bass Management is overlay-ed and almost exact with corrected and uncorrected. Great speaker placement as your response is pretty darn good without correction.

What speaker are you running as they have great low end extension with no sub.

Have your calculated and downloaded to the AVR, or was this Auto mode? I havent even tried auto mode so I dont know if that is all done automatically. The flexibility comes from Manual ARC and not Auto. If you ran Auto and saved the file, just use manual mode and open that same file.
 
#3,996 ·
An aha moment. I think I am on to something. Nick and other knowledgeable members please opine.

As some of you might recall from my earlier posts, I have not been too impressed with ARC. I continue to prefer music without ARC. I thought ARC in some way took the air away from my music. The post correction curves looked perfect though from ARC. Therefore my frustration. In the hope of overcoming some of my 310s perceived limitations, I went ahead and got myself a Marantz 5 channel power amp - an MM9000 (150W x5). The mm9000 is in the chain now. I have used 4 channels to biamp (passive) my fronts. Using the fifth for the center. Surrounds are being driven by the Anthem. My impressions:

- I think the Anthem Amp on its own is pretty darn good. The quick measure curves with the mm9000 were worse than the ones I got with the 310s stock amps. I think this goes to show, atleast to some extent, that the Anthem's amps are more neutral and that Marantz indeed voices its amps to sound a certain way. With the Marantz in the chain, mids are smoother and more silky and the top end is slightly muted. The Anthem I think is more neutral though slightly too bright. So the first aha moment - amps do sound different. Even good ones from good companies.

- This time around I compared the quick measure results with the results that the ARC measure (I'll call this "full measure") takes during the full ARC process. I noticed a pretty significant difference between the two. And I tried to do an Apples to Apples here. I took the quick measure sweeps from the main position. I then took the Full Measure sweeps from the same main position - but only took one sweep so that Arc would not average the measurements across different positions. So in other words I compared one quick measure sweep with one full measure sweep from the same position. I was surprised to see that the quick measure sweep showed a rather less favorable reading than the full measure sweep. In fact I felt that the full measurement sweep that ARC uses for generating the correction curves does not capture the full resolution of the speakers' performance - which the quick measurement does. This, in my mind atleast, could explain why my actual results during listening did not reflect the almost perfect curves that ARC was showing me for my speakers. Aha moment number 2 - I think the measurement reading that ARC uses for generating the correction curves is in some way flawed and inferior to the real readings, which are represented by quick measure. Therefore the results during listening are less than perfect.

Cheers!
 
#3,998 ·
- I think the Anthem Amp on its own is pretty darn good. The quick measure curves with the mm9000 were worse than the ones I got with the 310s stock amps. I think this goes to show, atleast to some extent, that the Anthem's amps are more neutral and that Marantz indeed voices its amps to sound a certain way. With the Marantz in the chain, mids are smoother and more silky and the top end is slightly muted. The Anthem I think is more neutral though slightly too bright. So the first aha moment - amps do sound different. Even good ones from good companies.
Shame you don't have any actual screenshots to show the difference. Would be interesting to see what you have mentioned.
 
#4,002 ·
Nick, are there any plans to introduce the ability to down mix multi-channel sound to two-channel? It happens seamlessly when plugging in headphones so obviously the capability exists in the MRX line. I know one can do it by creating a profile that only has the fronts (and optionally, the sub) in it, but having a single button command for Stereo would make life a lot easier. Pretty please?
 
#4,006 ·
Nick, are there any plans to introduce the ability to down mix multi-channel sound to two-channel?
Sorry, no plan to add multichannel downmix to the mode selection list. Note that with the factory remote, the motions for selecting an input with a 2-channel speaker profile hardly differ from mode selection since neither is a single-button command. The up/down and Select buttons are involved either way.

If using an aftermarket IR remote, discrete commands are available to make input selection single-button (not Mode). With IP/RS-232 control, discrete commands are available for both functions.
 
#4,003 ·
Thanks for the quick revert Nick. I understand and what you say makes sense. I am sure better minds than me have gone over this with a fine toothed comb. In the meanwhile I will continue to fiddle with ARC - primarily because it is so easy to do. Just takes 2 mins to get a new ARC setting loaded for testing :).

The other thing that I still don't understand fully is the room gain setting. Currently my room gain is shown as 6 (please see target window attached). I guess this is the highest reading. Does this mean my room has too much room gain or does this mean that ARC is boosting room gain because my room has too little bass? I am guessing the former. If so, how does ARC treat this room gain? Does it let it be (i.e. if I don't tinker or reduce the default room gain setting)? OR does it forcefully apply some cutoffs to get us the perfect looking curve. Please see screen shot attached for my fronts after correction but with no manual reduction of default room gain. The green line shows that ARC is doing some sort of clipping of the bump in the
 

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#4,005 ·
Does this mean my room has too much room gain or does this mean that ARC is boosting room gain because my room has too little bass?
It means that your walls, floor, and ceiling are reinforcing bass and ARC is leaving it that way. Your uncorrected curves show considerably more energy between 40-200 Hz vs the remaining range in a pattern that implies the room is doing it. If existing room gain is removed, the sound ends up being too thin and unnatural, or more like an outdoors sound except that we're not outdoors.

To set room gain manually, reduce it (as low as 0 dB) if you find the sound too bassy and add some (up to 6 dB) if you find the sound too thin, keeping in mind that the speakers might protest if they're weren't designed to play that loud and deep. Where a subwoofer is used, its overall level is adjusted by the same amount.
 
#4,004 ·
Room gain is essentially more bass. RG is sub-400 hz-ish, so in your case, in that frequency range the sounds are 6db louder than outside of it. This boost is nicely rolled off. In your curves this is exactly that bump you can see on the left side. If you reduce it to zero the curve will be completely flat until rolloff on the left side. Generally RG increases the bass you have, but 6db might be too much. I have 3db on my movie profile and 1db on music.
 
#4,008 · (Edited)
Thanks again Nick for the clarification. Does ARC apply a default correction to the room gain irrespective of whether one manually changes the setting? I notice that the green curve shows a correction in the room gain bump even though i have left the default reading of 6 unchanged. Could this explain the loss of air that I am experiencing with ARC i.e. that there is some correction applied to the room gain even if you dont reduce the reading manually?

Also I am currently on the beta version of ARC 1.1.3. Can you confirm if the 3db level reduction issue has been resolved in this version? I get a sense its still there.
 
#4,009 ·
^ Equalization is applied through the range up to Max EQ Frequency regardless of room gain. To disable Room Gain, set it to 0 dB.

MRX v1.2.9 is going to be a general release soon. For now it's on the site that has the ARC beta (first link). Changes since v1.2.6:

1. When using ARC v1.1.2882 or later to load a file, there is no longer a 3 dB level reduction when ARC is enabled in MRX.

2. Fixes for certain cases of sub channel muting after changing speaker configuration or tone settings.

3. Fix for AnthemLogic not appearing on selection list under certain conditions.

4. After Process Analog Input was set to No in setup menu, the corresponding N/A menu items weren't being grayed - fixed.

5. When Back Amp was set to Zone 2 and its volume was set much higher than Main volume, noises sometimes resulted while making other changes - fixed.

6. Fix for Zone 2 volume being too high if power-on volume was lowered in setup menu and Z2 was power cycled.
 
#4,010 ·
^ Equalization is applied through the range up to Max EQ Frequency regardless of room gain. To disable Room Gain, set it to 0 dB.

MRX v1.2.9 is going to be a general release soon. For now it's on the site that has the ARC beta (first link). Changes since v1.2.6:

1. When using ARC v1.1.2882 or later to load a file, there is no longer a 3 dB level reduction when ARC is enabled in MRX.

2. Fixes for certain cases of sub channel muting after changing speaker configuration or tone settings.

3. Fix for AnthemLogic not appearing on selection list under certain conditions.

4. After Process Analog Input was set to No in setup menu, the corresponding N/A menu items weren't being grayed - fixed.

5. When Back Amp was set to Zone 2 and its volume was set much higher than Main volume, noises sometimes resulted while making other changes - fixed.

6. Fix for Zone 2 volume being too high if power-on volume was lowered in setup menu and Z2 was power cycled.
Nick, where is the link to the MRX v1.2.9 update you refer to?
 
#4,011 ·
Hi, I'm a new owner of a 310. I did a calibration with 2.1 (as I await wiring for my surrounds, I will not have a center).

After I uploaded the ARC, it set levels for front left, front right and subwoofer (all the ones I have now) at the apparent maximum of +12 db.

Q1) This doesn't seem normal. Why would it do this? Did I do something wrong? Will this mess up Dolby Volume calibration?

Q2) I'm trying to understand the relationship between the equalization 'cutoffs' on the ARC software and the crossover frequency in the bass management menu. I know that uploading ARC results sets the frequencies in the bass management (which according to Nick) are the crossovers. But the equalization targets for fronts also have a high-pass filter as well.

In other words, if I set the ARC cutoff to 80 hz and it makes a target which declines at a certain rate below 80 Hz, and then the bass management is set also at 80Hz, then there are really *two* filters and therefore the actual high pass filter net will be twice as steep as what appears in the ARC screen? By ear, I set the equalization cutoff to 50 Hz on the ARC but manually changed the bass management frequency to 70Hz. Does this mean I am getting 'one order' of high pass filtering on the mains starting near 70 Hz and then a sharper one going down below 50 Hz? I interpreted this as maybe aiding the integration of speaker and sub. My mains are large planar Magnepan 3.6, and the corrected curve was still well below target in mid bass frequencies.

Suggestion) I learnt from previous postings in this threat that my original impressions were wrong and that the frequency response of the subwoofer shown in the ARC is not actually what will be sent to the subwoofer because there is "the" crossover between sub and speaker active for all speakers, with crossover frequency at the frequency governed by bass management menu and not obviously ARC. This is unexpected from the user interface of ARC software. The ARC software shows all channels being equal, mains, surrounds and sub, with measured and corrected curves. It suggests to the typical user that those corrected curves are what will be sent to each speaker, but it seems to be the case that this is not so, as there is additional effects from bass management, and in fact the sub is actually being treated differently from the others.

I also suggest to the software designers of the ARC that they create a new make a new set of graphs in a new window including both equalization and bass management crossovers which would show what is actually being sent to each speaker and the sub, i.e. if there are 5 speakers and 1 sub, instead of being 6 graphs there are 5, but each one includes what is being redirected to the sub (from that channel), what is being sent to the speaker, and what the total of sub + speaker is (or should be).
 
#4,015 ·
high pass filter net will be twice as steep as what appears in the ARC screen?
Red curve = no processing
Purple curve = red curve + bass management
Green curve = purple curve + equalization

if there are 5 speakers and 1 sub, instead of being 6 graphs there are 5, but each one includes what is being redirected to the sub (from that channel), what is being sent to the speaker, and what the total of sub + speaker is (or should be).
This would omit LFE and no new info would be shown since the crossover figures already indicate what goes to the sub from the other channels. I've reworded and rearranged the target panel for future releases to try and make things clearer.
 
#4,013 ·
Has anyone had issues with the network card not being able to be pinged after a few hours? I can resolve it by switching from DHCP to manual ip and and back and it connects again. It does it on both of my wireless bridges, a netgear and an apple airport express ten 2. Any ideas? Maybe something going to sleep when receiver is off?
 
#4,018 ·
with only 2 speakers (fronts) how does the MRX disposition anthem logic and Cinema

Hi - In one of my ARC profiles, I chose only 2 speakers- the fronts. Now in this mode i.e. with just 2 speakers, if I choose Anthem Logic/ Cinema, I experience very heavy bass. When I chge the mode to None 2.0 then things normalize, but going back to Anthem logic modes, bass gets exaggerated heavily. I am wondering how that happens. Sound still comes out only from the fronts (surrounds, center and sub are dead quiet as should be in this profile) but the fronts start churning out way too much bass.

Nick - do you know why and how this happens? How does MRX convert a 2.0 source to Anthem Logic but by only using 2 speakers i.e. the fronts. One could question the reasoning behind using the Anthem logic modes if one only wanted to use the fronts. I kind of agree that the act is counter intuitive, but still want to understand how the MRX handles this.

Thanks!
 
#4,019 ·
^^ With v1.2.9, sub level shouldn't be dropping.

^ The extra bass is due to upmixing then dowmixing behind the scenes. I wouldn't recommend any surround mode in a 2.0 or 2.1 setup - just set listening mode preset to None.
 
#4,020 ·
Says 1.2.9 but it's 1.2.6


Went to the Anthem website saw that the new software update is available but when i dl it it is actually the older version
 
#4,028 ·
Question for Nick@Anthem

When i did Arc it set my sub crossover at 120hz. Should my sub be lowered than that?
 
#4,029 ·
^ 120 Hz is a crossover frequency only when front/center/surround/back is set to 120 Hz. You're probably referring to LFE range which is usually 120 Hz, or sub equalization range in which case wider is better.

-----

For anyone with access to the beta site (available via tech support) ARC v1.1.3512 is posted. Changes since v1.1.2882, each more or less instigated by one or two wild cases:

1. General improvements to optimizer and auto detection.
2. General connectivity improvements.
3. Fix for a click occurring under specific conditions with certain tracks.
4. Other minor bugs/improvements.
5. Ability to send network log to a text file.
 
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