Anthem MRX Receivers - 300, 500, 700 Owners Thread & Tweaking Guide - Page 433

Hi all. I joined the Anthem group this with with my 300 buy in. I went to the dealer intent on buying a NAD T757, but knew that the MRX was out there. My previous setup was a Sony DA5300ES, Oppo BDP95, Parasound 2100 pre for stereo listening and a Para 2250 amp. Speakers are DefTech BP7002 and their center and rears. My room is a big mish mash of openings and surfaces. Likely the worst case for Definitive's BiPolar stuff. I always hated how unnecessarily complicated it was to access all the goodies in the Sony ( and there are plenty). But I realized that I had no use for all the silly crap on most AVRs.

The sound was OK out of the box, but after running the software, it was incredible how it came to life. Now I plan on pulling the 2100 out and just using the Anthem and the 2250. I won't get to use the awesome analog section on the Oppo, but oh well! I can see what Anthem says about ARC trumping the benefits of the other DACs.

BTW, I had a hard time getting the ARC to work and thought I bricked the unit doing the firmware upgrade. Turns out that my USB-serial cable was not playing nice, though I ave used it countless times on other gear ad I program control seems all day with it. I tried another PL2303 based adapter and it flew right through both. Thank you Anthem for having seemingly forgiving update path, as I have seem many devices bricked by a firmware update failure.

I ill have to go back through this entire thread!

You can use Z2 to analog

Hey guys I'm picking up an MRX tomorrow. I've been using a Pioneer Elite as my pre/pro for the last 4 years and now I'm switching to Anthem. I'm very familiar with Pioneer's MCACC and how it doesn't EQ the sub, so I've been using an SMS-1 to EQ my sub. I know ARC EQ's the sub, but can anyone think of a reason to keep the SMS-1?

How many subs are you running? Do any of them have balanced inputs?

If the answer is "two" or three" to the first question and/or "yes" to the second, keep the SMS-1.

In the beginning, keep the SMS-1 so you can do before/after measurements of ARC (sort of - the SMS-1 without their spatial averaging kit - MIC-5, I think it was called - isn't that accurate).

I had an SMS-1 for a while, but after the miniDSP's came out only used it for quick measurements. With the MRX, Quick Measure made the SMS-1/MIC-5 combo superfluous, so I sold the SMS-1/MIC-5.

Thanks for the reply. I currently have a single Hsu VTF-15H sub, which doesn't have balanced input.s. My plan was to keep theSMS-1 as you suggested to compare the results with ARC, then sell the SMS-1 if everything works out. No sense in having two EQ's in the system. I've been reading through the thread and it's a BIG thread, so forgive my ignorance but I'm new to ARC. Are you guys finding that ARC does a better job than a single SMS-1 due to it being able EQ multiple locations?

Thanks
Legairre

I've been sniffing around this thread for sometime but haven't really taken notes on using ARC with a sub. Is there a guide or best practices available? I would just turn off the subs EQ and let ARC do its thing, but what about gain, etc on the sub?

You will get some good advice in this thread, but basically you want to turn off any crossover (if present) in your sub, or turn it to as high a crossover point as possible. Start with sub volume at 50% to go with your first run of ARC. Post your charts and this group will help you from there.

Start at the beginning of this thread (Posts 1 & Post 2). Read each Post and all associated posts pointed to in the 2nd post. A few of the links in the 2nd post will also point to additional links, read those as well (in other words go 3 links deep). If you need more context on one of the links, read a few posts back, but most should be self explanatory on their own (or with the included Quote and links).

98% of everything you want to know will be included in the First and Second Post and their links.

Does anyone know if anthem or anyone else for that matter is working on a ipad remote app?

That would be great!

Hi folks. Any comments on post 12916? Thanks!

hey guys

I have a mrx 700 and the center channel seems to mute alot when i fast forward pause or rewind things. it doest happen all the time but i would say about 20percent of the time it does. If i hit volume up or volume down it seems to fix the problem. Last night for the first time it just stopped in the middle of a movie while watching norma and I had to hit volume up. Incredibly annoying any body have any ideas. This is my second mrx 700 in about 2 years as well.

Santa is coming to me next weekend with a set of Studio 100s and a CC 690. JayRay I believe you said you have the same? Could you or anyone provide any suggestions on placement etc of the speakers in my room as I upgrade my speakers?

I will upload my charts after I run ARC

Thanks for your help.

Ok, there is a lot going on here... Let's start with your questions....

1) Ok, this is reasonable. However, unless you are looking for a different sitting position when listening to music and/or are intentionally using different mic positions with your Music profile (perhaps focused less on an audience and more on a single chair), there is no reason to run two sets of sweeps. You can simply run one set, than uncheck the "Same as Movie" button and adjust the Music profile to your liking after the fact.
2) Assuming your acoustic paneling is intended to target higher frequencies, than it maybe doing its job, particularly on the front right as you cans see that it appears more tame from 10k on, but it is really hard to say.
3) Your SR shows signs of boundary gain. Based on your location description of being in a corner, this makes sense. As it is a built in speaker, not much you can do here. ARC appears to be helping though. (Note: your SL appears to be better placed, I'm guessing it is not in a corner but is the same distance from one wall as the right? Perhaps the back wall?)
4) You are having a hard time with the FR likely because it is to close to the corner you have placed it in. It probably needs to be a good 2 feet from each of the corner walls. I would try something like 2 feet from the back wall and 2.5 feet from the side wall.
5) More specifically you have a giant null or hole occurring somewhere around 90-100Hz. This is likely one of several things... Top 2 that come to mind are: a bad room mode (what are the dimensions and shape of your room?) or possibly a crossover issue in your golden ears. Looking at the way the sub is currently rolling off at somewhere around 70-80Hz and your other speakers appear to be rolling off around 120-130Hz... maybe golden ear uses some sort of crossover point of around 100Hz and for some reason it is is rolling the two sides far to early? Interestingly your surrounds don't look like they are suffering the same as your fronts so this may point more at the speakers than the room? Have you shown these graphs to GoldenEar?
6) Likely the discrepancy is do to resources being applied differently. In your Movie Profile resources are dedicated only to about 120Hz and above. In your Music Profile they are being applied all the way down to 30Hz or so. However even slight differences in mic positions can affect the decisions ARC makes so if you want to rule out slight variations of microphone placement and measurements, see my comments in point #1.
7) You note that if you set ARC with Mains set Full Range and Sub=Yes that you lose the low frequencies for the surrounds and center if you do not connect the LFE input. This is correct. While the main FR/FL are set to full range and will not redirect to the LFE/Sub output of the MRX, all other channels that are set 'Small' are crossing over to the LFE output as you have told the MRX you have a sub connected to the LFE/Sub port when you said Sub=Yes. You could tell the MRX to run all of your speakers as Full Range in which case the low frequencies will not get redirected on any of the speakers, but your LFE track in a movie will still get directed to the LFE/Sub out on the MRX. Of course your surrounds and particularly your center will not reproduce sounds as low as your sub would. You could also leave the surrounds/center set as 'Small' and tell the MRX you have no sub, in which case I believe it will re-direct the LFE and crossed over surround info to the Front Mains (but don't quote me on that... each receiver handles this situation differently and I can't remember exactly how the MRX handles it... I have it my notes somewhere... but as it is not something I'm likely to do I've forgotten ).


As for your current Speaker Calibration Levels. They all look good. Anything +/-3 is Excellent and anything +/-5 is Very Good as well, so your levels look near perfect.

Now, as for improving things. What are the settings you can adjust on the GoldenEars, starting with the LFE input? Why is does it appear the LFE input has a Low Pass Filter set at 80Hz? Considering the fact that the GoldenEar Centers struggle to even hit 120Hz, one would assume the LFE input should Low Pass at around 120Hz to match the center. This would help with all of your surrounds as well as they are currently being crossed at 120Hz and as your Mains are in your Movie profile.

Can you provide us with Detailed Pics of the back of your GoldenEars so we can see what settings are available and how they are currently adjusted?

Thanks!
Edited by Tigger! - 12/9/12 at 12:30pm

The Studio 100s and CC690 like to be out from back and side walls. I have mine 2.5' out from back and 3' from side. This gave me pretty flat graphs prior to ARC and really flat after ARC. Centre is between the mains tilted up to main listening position. It is also 2.5' from the back wall.
John

Posted on here a couple of pages ago with some questions and took some great advice and I'm now am the owner of an MRX 300 and a new Monitor Sub 12 with PBK as well. I haven't done loads of critical listening yet, but first impressions are that it's a noticeable upgrade from my Onkyo 805 AVR - possibly moreso than I expected. Main speakers are Paradigm Studio 60's, CC-590 Center, ADP-390 surrounds, and some older Polk Monitor 30's for rears. I have an Emotiva XPA-3 driving the LCR channels. PBK setup was a breeze and resulted in a nice smooth looking curve after EQed. I ran ARC next in auto mode and came up with the following results.

Levels:
L, C, R = 0db
Surr L/R = +1db
Sub = -3db
Rear R = -1db
Rear L = 0db

Bass Management:
F = Small 60hz
C = Small 60hz
Sr = Small 80hz
Rear = Small 60hz




Now admittedly I haven't studied loads of these graphs as some of you have. I assume the focus should really be on the LCR and Sub channels as they will obviously get the most work. Based on my own observations, things look relatively good to me following ARC, though it seems sort of strange to me that it doesn't appear to be doing much for my center channel between 1k-5k Hz and things are a bit messy there. Any other observations anyone else would make that look like they warrant more investigation? Basically, if these were your results, would you be looking to fix anything? Honestly I find the sound quality of everything to be pretty stellar right now, but I figure if I've got all this information at my disposal, I might as well learn how to use it properly.

Sub graph looks great! I upgraded my old Revel sub to a Paradigm Studio Series Sub 15 (with PBK) and it made all the difference in the world. PBK combined with ARC is a great combination.

Thanks for that John I will use it as a guide when I get started

I forgot to mention that the speakers will be going into a 2 cat environment and I have ideas to ensure they remain untouched lol. My wife worries that the ideas will interfere with the look of the room... Who is the audiophile here lolol

Not uncommon...when my friend brings her cat to my house I instantly fear the grill on my Paradigm Sub 15 is going to get thrashed. I put obstacles around to ensure that doesn't happen.

This combo of speakers sound outstanding in my HT.
John

This combo of speakers sound outstanding in my HT.
John[/quote]

Yes but I am still missing the Sub 15 lol still on my wish list.

I am really looking forward to the difference and hope my wife notices it too. What is it they say about Happy wife... :-0

OK, don't laugh, but just took delivery of a new MRX 700 and I haven't set up a HT in 15 years.

First, for the 7.1 rears, am I correct that I hook those up to the two speaker outputs marked "SB/VH ZONE 2", R and L? These are all in the grouping "SPEAKERS 8Ohm"

Second, where do I hook up the Subwoofer? I see a single jack under the grouping "7.1 CH MAIN PRE - OUT", 4th from the left, lower one marked "SUB W" right below a single jack marked "CENTER".

I am a bit thrown off since all the other speaker connections are bananas or wires...

Thanks for helping out a rookie, and an old one at that!

I likely will have more questions when I try the ARC process....

Steve V

Yes but I am still missing the Sub 15 lol still on my wish list.
I am really looking forward to the difference and hope my wife notices it too. What is it they say about Happy wife... :-0[/quote]

Mine is a Sub 25:)
John

I have Sub Envy here (Sub 15). I feel so inadequate.

Nick said yours is a great sub.
John

Welcome SteveLV to the Anthem MRX club!

Not to worry, we are here to help.

For a 7.1 speaker configuration you should be using the banana/speaker wire inputs for 7 of your speakers (assuming you are not running any external amps), the sub will go to the LFE output which has an RCA style connector labeled 'SUB W', as you have already correctly identified.

• Your Front L/R will go to the speaker connections labeled "Front R" and "Front L"
• Your Center will go to the speaker connections labeled "Center"
• Your Surrounds (used for both a 5.1 and 7.1 setup) will go to the speaker connections labeled "Surround L" and "Surround R". These are the speakers that typically are off to the sides of your listening position.
• The last set of speaker connections are unique to all of the other speaker connections and are labeled "SB/VH ZONE2 L" and "SB/VH ZONE2 R". These speaker connections are where you will hitch up your last set of speakers, your "Rears". I stated that this pair of connections is unique because unlike the other connections that have a clear dedicated use, this pair can be used in one of 3 ways. If you have a 7.1 configuration and the last pair of speakers are located on the rear wall of your home theater, as "Rears", than this connection will be used for that set of speakers. Some 7.1 home theater setups do not have "Rears" but instead have front "Heights", these are speakers located at the front of the room above your Fronts and closer to the ceiling. The last configuration these outputs can be used for are for people who are only using the receiver for 5.1 but would like to power another pair of speakers independent from the main speakers. This is referred to as a "Zone 2" configuration. With a Zone 2 setup you can independently set the source for the Zone 2 speakers and have them playing one thing while your main 5.1 speakers are playing something else. A typical example would be a set of remote speakers for an outside patio. NOTE: You can only configure your system for 1 of the 3 possible combinations on the "SB/VH ZONE2" connection. It can not be both a 7.1 and a remote Zone 2 configuration at the same time. NOTE 2: You can think of the label on the this set of speaker connections as reading SB=Surround Back, VH=Vertical Height and Zone2=For Zone 2 Use; basically the three configuration options these speaker connections can be configured for.
• As for the sub, the sub should have its own amplifier and will not be relying on the MRX's amplifiers. This is why it is connecting to the "SUB W" RCA connection you spotted. Typically the Sub's Amplifier will be built into the Subs cabinet however some subs may use an external Amp to drive the sub. Either way, the amp for the sub should have an RCA input (or possibly two), often labeled LFE input. If your sub has two RCA inputs, a Left and a Right, than you will only be using one of the two. Please refer to your subs manual as to which one to use. Typically I believe it will be the Left but I've seen the Right used as well. You may find that one is labeled something like "Left/LFE/Mono" and the other as "Right". This would indicate that the Left is to be used when only one connection is being made to the amp.

If you need more assistance with the Sub, than let us know what sub you have, post a picture of the back of the sub so we can clearly see all the connections, settings, knobs, etc and we will see what we can do to walk you through setting up your sub. Typically the sub will also have a number of knobs and/or switches for setting the subs 'Level' and 'Crossover' point. Typically a good starting place with most subs 'Level' controls is about 50% to 80%, we can fine tune it from there. For the 'Crossover' controls and possibly 'Low Pass' and 'High Pass' controls, we want to set the crossover as high as it will go or if available "Disabled" or "Bypass". If their are Low and High Pass controls, you want to set the Low Pass as high as it can be set, usually something like 180Hz and the High Pass should be set as low as it will go, usually something like 15 or 25Hz. If there is a Phase adjustment, this can be configured later but typically it will be set to 0 if your sub is in the front of your room along the same plane as your Front L/R speakers.

Before you run ARC, please read the first two posts of this thread (also linked in my signature below). The second post has lots of good information about how to run ARC and configuring your MRX. Read all of the links presented and you will be in great shape before you start running ARC.

Hope this helped a little.
Edited by Tigger! - 12/11/12 at 9:28am

Anyone have any experience running ARC with dipolar speakers?
I've been using a MR-500 with traditional box speakers, ARC has done a great job with my existing speakers. I'm thinking of changing to a set of Magnepan speakers and was wondering how will ARC react to dipole speakers vs. the monopoles I currently have.

Tigger, thanks for the very thorough response.

I am indeed using the rear speakers as rears, not ceiling or in another room.

The sub is a Paradigm Studio Sub 12. I will check on the back of that unit when I get home tonight.

The rest of the setup is: L/R Studio 100's; CC-690 (what a behemoth!); Studio 10's for all 4 side and rear speakers; Sub 12 subwoofer per above.

Thanks. I will dig into your earlier posts to get further education.

Steve

Hello All,
Hope you are all enjoying the Holiday's! I have a question regarding ARC. My old laptop that had my current ARC settings, stopped working. Is there a way to reload my current ARC settings from my MRX 700 back to the ARC software? Or if that is not possible can I save the ARC settings internally in the receiver?

Don't let all the info in those posts scare you. Nothing is really all that hard to do (I can just get a bit detailed in some of my responses to questions some times ).

With the Sub 12, are you using PBK? If yes, and you have not moved your sub, no need to re-do the PBK settings. If however you are planning to re-run PBK on the sub (maybe you have moved the sub or things in your room have changed), run PBK first, than run ARC.

If you are not using PBK with the Sub 12, disregard and just treat it like a standard sub.

There are numerous people on here with Sub 12's that can probably give you a great advice on how to setup the Sub 12.