Anthem MRX Receivers - 300, 500, 700 Owners Thread & Tweaking Guide - Page 311

Hello all,

I've recently gotten the Goldenear Triton Cinema speakers (5.0) along with my MRX 300, and just started to run ARC.

My front left is quite close to the wall, whilst the front right opens up into a corridor. The center sits in front of the TV. The rears are above and behind me on a mantle.

I am wondering if anyone can explain to me why there is such a huge gap on the low end for my center / rears and any ways to improve it?

I don't have many options placement wise, but am open to suggestions.

I also dug through the thread with the issues COACH2369 had with his set of Goldenears. I noticed that his graph and mine look completely different. His set of graphs are available at post #7239.

Thanks in advance.

Ninja12..tks. for the suggestion. The sub's crossover was dialed to 80, so I switched that to off. The subsonic filter was positioned at 20hz, so I switched that to "sealed". The sub chart looks much better now. I'll have to do some major, critical listening now at or near reference levels.
Tks. again
j.k.

Cool....I'm glad it worked for you. If you would like for us to take a look at your new sub chart, then just post it, and as usual, we will provide feedback.

WOW!!!! Ummm......Your speakers are having a hard time with the low end in your room. Your surrounds are really dropping off real bad which looks like a placement issue. I know you said that you don't have many options placement wise; but, it looks like to me that all of your speakers might benefit from playing around with placement. Also, definitely check check the surrounds and center to make sure they are not damaged as far as the low end frequencies are concerned.

I remember Coach's graphs. His fronts were different with too much bottom end but he had the same chart with his center. I remember us asking if his was damaged too. I believe he had a conversation with the maker of the speakers about it.

I see, thank you. I'll play around and see.

After moving, I can do a quick measure for the center/rear or should I redo all the measurements?

Quick measure is a great way to test each speaker and move them around for the best response. Quick measure sets all config values to default so you will have to do a complete measure and upload when you are done.

Ninja12..the new sub chart, et al:
jk

Hi there, I would like to use the 12V trigger function on the 700 with my outboard poweramp but while the 700 requires 3.5MM mini plug, my poweramp uses 2.5mm, my question is any recommendation on 3.5 to 2.5 convertor or vice versa, and whether the mini plug is stereo or mono make any difference. Thank you.

I've recently gone through this as well. The center is really lacking on bottom end. I know sandy says just set the crossover higher, but I've been lobbying a center that rivals the tritons for low end and made the deal w the dealer that if (when?) they come out w a deeper center I get to trade.

I'm not home to review my charts but I recall I got a better curve than coach did on the center but still not where I think they should go.

I'm hoping that after break in it goes a bit deeper.

The pic was too small for me to see. Can you repost a bigger pic?

Whilst browsing the thread a couple of days ago I found reference to measurements done post-ARC using REW.

I'm keen to see this but can't find the link or post anymore.

Anyone have it handy?

My own post-ARC measurements using TrueRTA show definite improvements (if not the ruler flat response the targets indicate) whereas they didn't with Audyssey. I'm aware of the difficulties in replicating the multi-position averaging ARC applies, but am still curious to see what others have found.

Ninja12; little trouble there with the thumbnail..
j.k.

Yep, that looks better. Looks like your sub has no problem playing down to 20 Hz. If your sub also has built-in Low Frequency Protection, I would suggest that you change your sub setting from Auto to Flat. You can do this in the Targets' View by clicking on the Advanced Button, change the setting from Auto to Flat, click Ok, click Ok again, click Calculate, save the ARC file, click Upload. You will not have to rerun ARC as a result of setting your sub to Flat. By setting your sub to Flat will give you a little more oomph with the LFE. You can listen to that for a while to see if you like it. If you don't, then you can set it back to Auto by doing the same thing that you did to set it to Flat.

Enjoy!!!!

Is anybody really feeling like this is an acceptable way to resolve an ongoing issue? Yeah...I know I haven't been around in a while. But if my system is operating as it should...I should be listening to it instead of playing on the internet. I'm running FW v50.19 and still getting occasional lock-ups when switching listening modes. On the positive side...at least I haven't located the receiver in a cabinet that has a closed back on it. God forbid I be able to close up my entertainment center the way that it was designed to be.
I sent an email into Piero...a couple of weeks ago, but no response as of yet.

Sub looks great!

Finally discovered how to set Dolby Volume for dynamic listening. I do not like volume leveling/compression for Blu-ray watching. Right now I have Dolby Volume set on, Half Mode set on and leveler set to off. Watched some of The Incredible Hulk and didn't think my walls were going to hold up. I still can not believe how my MRX 500 is stomping all over the Integra DTR-70.2 I had. WOW!!!

I encountered the lockup issue too. Support (Andrew) suggested loading FW v50.12 and this resolved my problems. Per an email that I received from Andrew today, they are working on a fix.

Hi everyone-

I received my USB to Serial converter today and was able to run ARC with my new MRX 300. I've attached my graphs, let me know what you think!

I'm running a full Paradigm setup (Monitor 11s, CC390 [the big guy] center, ADP-390 surrounds, and a PW2200 sub).

One thing I did notice was that all my speakers were set to +8 to +11 dB and my sub was -10dB. The gain on my sub is slightly below half, and the low end response is significantly less than I would like so I'm tempted to bring that level up. It seems to be more to my liking around 0 - 3 dB depending on Music / Movie.

All input is very much appreciated.

ARC has set your speaker trim levels to try to reduce a very loud sub. You have a 20db swing. I would guess you have to turn your sub down to a quarter to compensate.

If you change the trim on your sub up to 0 or 33 you'll break ARC.

Your front speakers are shoeing signs of boundary gain. Moving them out from the corner or the walls should reduce the peak you have in the lower end and allow ARC to correct them better. Your sub looks like it may have a high pass filter on. The high end rolls down very quickly and I think it should be able to go higher so that you aren't missing out of the LFE that could go up as high as 120hz. If it could go higher I assume you might get a little higher room gain which may help to satisfy your desire for more bottom end.

Give ARC a week of listening before you start to play with more bass and perhaps we can help you get that without breaking ARC.

Thanks for the reply. I do have an issue in that the front of my room is relatively narrow (11 ft wide where the TV/speakers are) so the home theater setup pretty much spans the whole width. I have the speakers about 17 inches from the wall currently.nnThe room is also very long so the bass does get a bit boomy at times depending on where you sit. The joys of having a sheetrocked basement family room with 8 foot ceilings.

I checked my sub setting and the filter was set as high as it can go (150 Hz) so I don't think that was an issue. I just used the "quick measure" tool and found that pushing my sub closer to the wall increased my frequency response around the 100 Hz range.

I am going to turn down my sub and re-run just to make the speaker levels a bit more balanced. Then I'll give it a week and see how it goes. I must say, out of the box I am very impressed with the MRX-300. It is replacing my Denon 4306 that took a crap on me (digital boards) and was deemed unrepairable by Denon after 6 months of going back and forth, a rebuilt DSP board, and a new microprocessor board.

Ok- I put the sub at about 25% and re-ran ARC. The levels are much better. The speakers are at -1 to +1 dB but the sub is still at -7dB (and I'm still not very happy with the insignificant - to my ears - low end response).

I have attached the updated plots and settings. Your feedback is appreciated. It's going to be a long week, I am a tweak-a-holic!

Thanks again.
Travis

Your levels are much better. With the exception of your sub (which is still to loud, probably should be about 20%) all of your speakers are now where they naturally belong.

With your fronts, if they are 17 inches from the back wall and the side wall... try moving them so that at least one of the two distances is closer to 24 inches. Probably just pull them forward a bit if you have a really long room.

Your repositioning still does not look like the sub is going as high as we would like... I would try adjusting the low pass filter with Quick Measure on, just to make sure you can see that it is in fact giving the highest setting it can. Does the speaker not have a bypass option on it?

I think you need to keep playing with the positioning of the sub. See if you can get the sub more flat. It looks like you have a real peak at 30Hz, see if you can position the sub so that that peak is lower.

As Shrike645 noted in his last response... once we get everything where it should be, don't go adjusting anything... listen for a SOLID week and see how things sound. After that, if it still seems a little weak, we might start by bumping your Room Gain up to around 4 from 2 where it is now.

If you still feel it is a weak after that, I would try adjusting the tone controls, though we could increase the level a little, but I would not want to change it much more than +/-2 as as the crossover points will start to not really blend correctly.

I posted this on AVF a few days ago so might as well drop it in here too:

I meant to report back on my overall impressions but haven't managed to do it so far so here we go.

I've seen some people making negative comments regarding Anthem's build quality and/or design but I have to say I couldn't fault it at all. The brushed-aluminium front panel feels and looks the business so does the chassis and back connectors. OK, it's not the last word when it comes to design but the somehow minimalistic look really sells it for me. In this case: Less is more!

The connectivity wise some might be disappointed with (only) four HDMI inputs but in my case it's plenty as I can't see me needing more than that in foreseeable future. The MRX-300 also offers a respectable amount of legacy connections which I have no use for but it could be vital for some.

While I'm fairly impressed with the main unit I cannot really say the same about the supplied remote control. Somehow it feels quite cheap, being attached to a £1100 product, and doesn't have a good enough ergonomics. On top of that I'm not particularly impressed with buttons, both for the layout and size. The biggest sour being the volume buttons which simply are too small. Another thing that is quite bizarre is that Anthem have included the backlight facility, which lights up the remote really well, but it appears that the only way to activate it is by pressing the dedicated backlight button every time you want to use it? That means that if you are sitting in dark and suddenly want to use the remote and would like to see the buttons you have to 1st locate the backlight button. I can't understand why the backlight isn't activated by pressing any button, the feature found on my Oppo BDP-93 and Toshiba HD-XE1, as an example. In having said that, the remote control does the job and allows a comprehensive control over the AVR. Keeping in mind that a lot of people might use 3rd party controllers for their equipment (I'm also looking to invest in this area) the supplied remote might only be used on the initial set up so my outlined issues might not be of any concern. Either way the remote control left me disappointed.

The supplied instruction manual (yes, I read it from cover to cover) was fairly comprehensive and covered most of the features and controls found on the AVR. Only minor issue I discovered that the manual was pretty vague on explaining about connections and connectivity. Taking into account that this AVR is aimed at custom install market and in most cases will be installed and set up by an engineer the manual won't really be a problem but even then you would expect the manual contain information on connecting a subwoofer, as an example.

The prized ARC

All the ARC gubbins comes in a separate box located inside the main box which makes it very neat and feels like a little nice touch. I wouldn't say that the supplied microphone stand is of exceptional quality but it does the job and I don't think most people would have any issues with it.

To install and run the ARC is fairly straight forward as long as you have some basic computer skills. Presuming you have a serial port on your computer or have a decent USB to serial adaptor (your retailer might have some to sell) you shouldn't have any issues there. All that is needed is to run the Automatic setup within the ARC and Bob's your uncle. Well, I stumbled a bit at very beginning but it's because I was overcomplicating things but it really is plug and play.

I was trying to recall the sound of my Onkyo TX-SR606 and after several days of watching movies and different clips form many discs I have to conclude that with or without the ARC the MRX-300 sounds better than my Onkyo. The overall sound image is just more subtle and controlled. So did ARC made much difference? Yes and no! Looking at my graphs in this post you can see that there was an improvement in my room acoustics after ARC was applied. To be honest at the begging I was struggling to pick out any major difference between EQ enabled and disabled. After reading endless posts on here and other places I was so hyped that I thought it's going to sound day and night but it didn't. So is it a fad? Actually it's not, after prolonged testing I started to pick up some noticeable difference in low end and in some cases subtle improvement in dialog. I'm not sure whether there has been any improvement to high end as I haven't really heard it, as yet! What I'm trying to saying here is that Anthem sounds really good out of the box so don't expect the ARC to do miracles but it definitely helps to define the overall sound image.

When the real magic happens

I realised that up till that point I wasn't really giving the MRX-300 a proper workout. I was advised in this very thread that the real magic happens when the volume goes up to -10. And be assured, it really does! The MRX-300 is rated at only 60W per channel driven in 5.1, as I'm driving 7.1 it should be even less than 60W, but don't get fooled by the number on a paper. In reality the MRX-300 has some muscle under the hood. My ultimate test scene is Games from the Tron Legacy Blu-ray that has 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Anyone that has seen this movie will know that that scene (so as many others) is very dynamic. It really kicks in after Sam Flynn gets dressed and enters the games arena. Playing the MRX-300 at that level made me realise how really awesome this Anthem product is. Then I also realised what benefit has ARC added to my system, as not only MRX-300 was firing with all cylinders without the slightest hiccups and showing any sign of fatigue, the actual soundstage was incredible. I was never expecting such a big, bold and defined sound from my modest speakers. What really topped it off was the incredible and precise reproduction of low end. This is where I really have to prize the ARC; the bass was just so incredibly tight and precise. Before, on my Onkyo, or even with EQ off on Anthem, low end was just a bit of mush and it was really just a wall of rumbling sound, now I could actually define the bass and could hear every beat starting and ending. It really felt like my subwoofer has been swapped out for a far greater unit.

The reference level is great but what about lower level?

Well, it still sounds good but as far as I can tell (more testing needs to be done) what really steals the show at lower volume is the Dolby Volume. A few nights ago I was watching "Deliverance" on HD-DVD and as it was very late the volume was kept low. I was able to hear all the dialogs perfectly fine but somehow I realised that I'm not really hearing much of the other background sounds. Obviously, if I started to increase the volume those missing sounds started to become more clear and present i.e. sound of a river in the background, birds chirping, etc. but the second I turned the volume down all those extra sounds just disappeared. It all changed the second I enabled Dolby Volume. It all became very clear and defined and sound was leveled out and I could hear the entire background noises as good as the actual dialog. It really felt like I've been watching the movie with ear plugs in my ears up till that point.

It's worth mentioning once again that my MRX-300 is driving modest Mordaunt-Short speakers and by having a better grade speakers the overall experience possibly could be greater.


So what is the bottom line?

Well, the bottom line is that this is not your mainstream product with fancy flashing lights, dual screens, endless (and in some cases useless) features and polished look. No, none of that and if that's what you are looking for then look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a product that can deliver an incredible Movie experience then look no further.

In having said that there are other products out there that most likely will be as good assuming your room has good acoustical treatment but as the majority of people won't have that luxury then the ARC is the added bonus on Anthem products. Do not expect it to do miracles, though but be assured the ARC will help you to define the sound of your system.

OK, there are some things that could've been better on this product but when it comes to sheer power and performance I have no hesitation what so ever to recommend Anthem. Obviously, depending on what you are upgrading from this might not be the product for you but I would strongly recommend to put Anthem on your shopping list and grant it at least a demo and you might be pleasantly surprised!

What is Anthem for me? Anthem for me is Games scene from Tron Legacy playing at reference level and me sitting on my sofa in front of my TV with big grin on my face, drooling all over my knees and my body covered in goose bumps!



P.S. The above is one man's opinion and shouldn't be taken as gospel. As always go see and demo the product and make your own judgement!



This is my Anthem. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My Anthem is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
My Anthem, without me, is useless. Without my Anthem, I am useless. I must play my Anthem true. I must play louder than my neighbour who is trying to annoy me. I must annoy him before he annoys me. I will...
My Anthem and myself know that what counts in this ASBO is not the music we play, the noise of our speakers, or the sound they make. We know that it is the bass that count. We will make bass...
My Anthem is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its buttons and its volume control. I will keep my Anthem clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...
Before God, I swear this creed. My Anthem and myself are the troublemakers of my street. We are the masters of our neighbour. We are the saviors of my street.
So be it, until victory is Andris' and there is no neighbour, but peace!

Try a BD with 23.976 FPS and you will see a picture "jump" for each 42 seconds of playing.

However, many BD's are produced in 24 FPS and this fact do not display any problems.

It is definitely not a Dune HD problem, as I have reproduced the problem with an Anthem BD.

Only solution with current firmware is to let BD video go "Through" and thereby unprocessed in the MRX. That cancels every possibility for changing colors, contrast and OSD is not shown.

Kr
Kim

I thought +10 was the max level the MRX would set?

Every BR disc I have ever seen was 23.976 FPS. Regardless of whether I am playing a BR rip or a BR disc, my mrx500 has never yielded dropped frames, jumpy audio or video, or lip-synch issues. When playing back BRs, my mrx500 says 1080p24 and my tv displays 1080p/24.

MRX-500 here with the same lockup issue on v50.19. I have a logitech 800 remote and it locksup about 50% of the time when I switch from BD (hmdi 1) to TV (hdmi 3). The sequence of event is: TV on, BD player on, AMP on. Then switch to watch TV: TV stays on, cable box is always on (but sometimes it's in screensaver mode - maybe that's why it works 50% of the time), BD player turns off, AMP switches input (then locksup). I'm going to try to switch the sequence around so that the AMP switches input before the BD player turns off and maybe add a delay in there between the 2 events.

My week old MRX 300 running v50.19 has done it twice while switching between sources. Are you saying an anthem rep recommended you roll back the Firmware version to 50.12?

Not a huge problem but a resolution would be nice.

Other than that, I love this thing.

Report this to Anthem.
John