Anthem MRX Receivers - 300, 500, 700 Owners Thread & Tweaking Guide - Page 5

I'd love to see some screenshots of the volume overlay and other info! Very tempted to grab one but I'd like to see that first

Nick,

Thank you for your clarification!

Michaelmorio

How long does it take from power on to sound coming out of the speakers on these receivers?

There are those that say Studio 100-s improve noticeably until they're getting at least 200w. Based on what you're saying, that's not necessarily true. I'm going to give my pair along with a 690 in a 5.1 a run with just the MRX-700 but interested in further thoughts on this.

10 seconds.

15 sec, I had the Oppo running and and turned off the AVR and turned it on.

Never heard that before. I have studio 100s.
John

I suppose source matters. Presumably, HDMI adds a few seconds for handshake, whereas non-HDMI input and tuner do not.

Both at the same time.

I have a 5.1 setup with v5 Studio 60, CC-690, ADP-590, Sub 12. My room is about 17 L x 13.5 W x 18 H (two stories!) = 4131 cu ft. + adjacent open areas (mostly behind listening pos). Do you think the MRX 500 will have any problem with the room size? I don't tend to listen at ear-bleeding levels.

The speaker sounds just as clean with half a watt as it does with 200 watts assuming the amp is not causing audible distortion. Of course, it does not sound as loud with less power. The question is how loud do you need it to play? If you need 200 watts, use a 200 watt amplifier. The difference between 200 watts and 120 watts is 2.2 dB. Noticeable? Yes. Deal-breaking? That's entirely up to the individual.

Chances are it will be fine - you won't be sitting that far from the speakers.

okay, some more fiddling and i have come to the following conclusions:

1.) i am only able to change this without an bd/dvd media in my oppo. if i have media in it, the mrx will not allow you to change the resolution in the OSD or using the button on the remote.

2.) im hoping that the "through" resolution fix will allow the signal to be untouched. right now having set it on auto, or 1080p the image is not as good as when using my scaler directly into my pj. the denon i had did this perfectly so hopefully the fix will do this properly.

3.) if i use "through" then the mrx can't lock on the 1080p24 signal supplied from my scaler. nick already addressed this and said a fix will be available shortly. for all other resolutions, i need to turn on first my oppo, then my scaler, wait a few seconds and then finally the mrx. any other order and i get handshake issues. i have tested this repeatably and the only solution is by turning on the mrx last. no biggie as i just make a macro in my remote to turn it on last. atleast others will know about this going in and won't complain about handshaking issues in the future.

4.) gostan mentioned what to do and seems to be working. thanks for that.

and finally, i see that you can't set different resolutions on a per input basis. maybe i missed it before but i was under the impression that each hdmi input could be set at a different output resolution. i tried it many times and whatever resolution i choose sticks to all the inputs. is this the case or is it a bug?

There are two video out configs. You can therefore have two choices for any source.
John

ahh, okay now i get it. so if i setup each video config to output hdmi and their respective resolution, how exactly would it work if i want to utilize a display monitor for setup, etc. that uses component or even composite?

As a matter of fact, on Paradigm's own website the third reprinted review for the studio 100 (Audio Video - William Kelley) makes such a statement. I understand reviews, particularly non-technical ones, are to be taken with a grain of salt but I might think its inclusion would suggest credence. Then again I understand the nature of marketing.

Nick, I appreciate your input. I'll give the MRX a go by itself and see what happens.

Brian-HD, is your Oppo configured to send Bitstream or LPCM over the HDMI output?

Cheers.

I guess mine is faster than yours
John

I sort of wondered why their top model jumped up so much in the price. Based on a cursory look, the other models seemed to be priced in the general range of mass market competitors. Then their top model jumped to 3k, which is pretty pricey.

I'd be inclined to believe what Nick says rather than some reviewer who has not tested them in the way they do at Paradigm. I have mine hooked up to an A2(200W) Anthem amp but trust me it's probably sleeping most of the time at my normal listening levels. My room is 14w x 26l x 8h.
John

I don't think you should get hung up on the # of watts, I think it's high current which you need playing the 100's full range. They have pretty big impedance dips which require high current, as long as you have the current available you should be fine. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I use an 80hz crossover with my v5 100's and my Pioneer Elite SC-07 has no trouble driving them to ear bleeding levels.

Translation: Amp should have decent power output into a 4-ohm load, and this applies especially to Studio 100 v1 and v2. Impedance dips are not as severe in later-version 100s.

In any case MRX can drive 4 ohms continuously although I wouldn't hook up such speakers to all channels at once and then try to hit rock concert levels. Field testing showed that there's no problem with 100s and CC-590/690 across the front. I believe they were all v4 and v5. There was no report of MRX 500 or 700 tripping into protection mode, unlike similarly priced and slightly more expensive competition in the same systems (shall remain nameless). MRX was also field tested with electrostatics that retail for up to $20K, new and old, the latter having very low impedance in the upper frequencies... still no incident of protection mode even though they were played loudly.

Caution: Driving an amp into sustained clipping is more likely to damage the speaker, especially tweeters, than the amp. When a speaker's power spec says it handles x number of watts, it assumes that the amp is not clipping, at least not for very long, when putting out that amount of power.

Hello Nick,
I asked you this question before,
I have Paradigm Studio 20's, 10s,CC490 and a HSU sub. The listening area (An apartment) is about 15 by 13. Would there be any difference in the Sound quality between a MRX 700 and 500? I think I am leaning towards the 500 because of the size of my apt.
You answered,
Amp-wise, and assuming you're not into HD Radio, I don't think the 700 would give you enough of an advantage to justify it. The 20's will probably end up being crossed over at 100 Hz.
My feelings are I have always had a 100 watt AVR, and if I am going to purchase a new AVR, I should go up in power for future equipment. With my set up I have now would the 700 be to powerful for my Paradigms?

Reading through the manual it appears that DPLIIx cannot be applied to DTS 5.1 sources? Curiously, DPLIIz seems to be available. Why? Is this an oversight in the manual?

I'm running Cinema 330s and a weany PDR 8 sub with my MRX500 and no issues. The 700 would be fine, more power usually isn't a problem as long as you don't crank it up beyond the speaker's capabililties.
John

PLIIx needs back channels. PLIIz needs ceiling channels, with or without back channels.

Really valuable info, Nick, thanks again.

It's better to have a bigger amp that doesn't clip vs a smaller one that does. If the amp puts out peak power that momentarily exceeds speaker rating, there's little chance it'll hurt it... no time for the voice coil to heat up.

Now, what's the definition of a peak these days? With movie soundtracks, including music within, it's usually the same definition as always. There's the occasional peak but most of the time not very much is going on as far as power is concerned. With music it's a different story and I mentioned ridiculously low peak-to-average ratio several times on AVS so I won't go into the same details. For a visual description search "loudness war" on www.youtube.com - the irony is that although the goal is to make something sound louder, the degradation makes people like me want to turn volume down.

I understand that but why is it that only PLIIz (and not PLIIx) can be applied to DTS 5.1 signals? They both will be "generating" extra channels and PLIIx can be applied to all other 5.1 signals (DD and PCM). I'm not aware of another AVR with this limitation.

endless login loop again so I'll repost with edit:

ETA: Sorry, I misread the part about DTS source... the DSP cannot apply certain processes to certain other sources, not just this case (and not so in AVM/D). It is as the manual says.