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Worth it to switch from Denon x8500h to Anthem MRX1140?

2219 Views 18 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  spacecowboy, 
joxr
Considering making the switch. I was happy with the 8500 but I feel I am missing out on better room correction with ARC over Audyssey. Has anyone made the switch and are you happy with your decision?
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S
Is there something that leads you to believe that Audessey isn't up to par?
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joxr
From everyone I have spoke to they said ARC and Dirac are way ahead.
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P
One reviewer's take on Audyssey and their subjective comparison to Dirac and Anthem
www.audiosciencereview.com

Audyssey Room EQ Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Audyssey Room Equalization. Audyssey is standard technology in a number of Audio/Video Receivers such as the Denon AVR-X3600H I recently reviewed. The standard version in the AVR is mostly all or nothing so I downloaded the Marantz/Denon...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com

You could find a retailer that has a decent return policy and make the comparison

joxr said:
From everyone I have spoke to they said ARC and Dirac are way ahead.
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philpoe said:
One reviewer's take on Audyssey and their subjective comparison to Dirac and Anthem
www.audiosciencereview.com

Audyssey Room EQ Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Audyssey Room Equalization. Audyssey is standard technology in a number of Audio/Video Receivers such as the Denon AVR-X3600H I recently reviewed. The standard version in the AVR is mostly all or nothing so I downloaded the Marantz/Denon...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com
Click to expand...
A review by someone who held the mic in there hand is not worth considering.
Rich
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J
Have you customized your Audyssey settings with the MultiEQ app? That would be my first recommendation. If you don't want to do it yourself, you could hire a professional to come in and do system setup for far less than buying the Anthem. The 8500 is a state of the art receiver, and Audyssey is perfectly capable of handling almost all home situations. Dirac does too, but the differences are fairly minute outside of the neediest, nerdiest tweakers.
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sirjaymz
Let me know if you decide to change.
Possible purchase x8500 from you ?
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joxr
Well purchased the 1140. Should be able to pick it up on Monday. Will test it and then make the decision.

Yes I have used the app for Audyssey but mainly just to disable midrange compensation and also limit the freq to 500
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joxr
sirjaymz said:
Let me know if you decide to change.
Possible purchase x8500 from you ?
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Sure
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zielin
please update us.
I'm been looking forward to jumping on a the Dirac or ARC train for sometime. but nothing new stands out. (also i'm looking to move away from Denon as my upgrade to x8500ha was a nightmare and i'm now 2+ weeks without my unit.)
I'd like to see if NAD comes out with a new unit. (i'm also confused just just processors cost more than AVR units that are processors plus amps. I use my x8500h as only a pre)

It is a shame that units from Trinnov or StormAudio are so STUNNINGLY costly.
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joxr
zielin said:
please update us.
I'm been looking forward to jumping on a the Dirac or ARC train for sometime. but nothing new stands out. (also i'm looking to move away from Denon as my upgrade to x8500ha was a nightmare and i'm now 2+ weeks without my unit.)
I'd like to see if NAD comes out with a new unit. (i'm also confused just just processors cost more than AVR units that are processors plus amps. I use my x8500h as only a pre)

It is a shame that units from Trinnov or StormAudio are so STUNNINGLY costly.
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Will do. I cant move to a processor currently as I don't have any amps so if I did make the jump it would be a ton of money out of pocket. I actually held off on doing the HDMI upgrade on my 8500. Figured it was better to hold off until I decided what I was going to do with the anthem.
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C
joxr said:
Will do. I cant move to a processor currently as I don't have any amps so if I did make the jump it would be a ton of money out of pocket. I actually held off on doing the HDMI upgrade on my 8500. Figured it was better to hold off until I decided what I was going to do with the anthem.
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I will echo what others have requested. Yes, please let us know your thoughts. I have not been happy with Audyssey and intend on making the jump to Anthem next year.
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crbdrb said:
I will echo what others have requested. Yes, please let us know your thoughts. I have not been happy with Audyssey and intend on making the jump to Anthem next year.
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If you intend to switch regardless, why does it matter his thoughts? Would they sway you?
Rich
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C
Rich 63 said:
If you intend to switch regardless, why does it matter his thoughts? Would they sway you?
Rich
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I guess I am interested in their thoughts for a couple of reasons. One would just be from a human interest perspective. And then another datapoint added to my research of Anthem and Arcam equipment. I guess in the end, their opinion might have swayed me some.
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joxr
My 1140 was available for pickup today so I just got home with it. Not going to be able to set it up until tonight though.
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Soulburner
Room EQ is generally used to reduce audible issues in the room. In the bass region, all rooms need it. That is not the case in the treble region.

The more of these room issues that are taken care of, the fewer artifacts you end up with. Adding dips and raises based on furniture, walls, etc makes the direct sound from the speakers worse. And you receive plenty of direct sound.

So pulling the seats away from the back wall, eliminating that coffee table, putting down a rug, getting the speakers away from the walls and into a triangle with your seat, will have huge audible benefits. If you can, start there before chasing another EQ solution.
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Soulburner said:
Room EQ is generally used to reduce audible issues in the room. In the bass region, all rooms need it. That is not the case in the treble region.

The more of these room issues that are taken care of, the fewer artifacts you end up with. Adding dips and raises based on furniture, walls, etc makes the direct sound from the speakers worse. And you receive plenty of direct sound.

So pulling the seats away from the back wall, eliminating that coffee table, putting down a rug, getting the speakers away from the walls and into a triangle with your seat, will have huge audible benefits. If you can, start there before chasing another EQ solution.
Click to expand...
I wish more people listened to advice like this. It's surprising that most people actually buy receivers and processors solely on room correction when in most cases, they have no idea what it's doing to their room. They were just told, "get a receiver with Audessey...it has the best room correction." They then let Audessey (or any other RC software) run it's measurements and spit out some results, then they walk away not quite sure what just happened. Sound comes out of all the speakers (check). Their friend told them Audessey was the "best" (check). So they just walk away thinking that they "optimized" the sound for their room. Basically, if you can't/don't/won't check to see what room correction has done to your settings and sound, and if you don't understand the importance of treating your room, you could be robbing yourself of getting the most out of your system without realizing it. Equalization is not the be-all solution that it's made out to be - actually, it's a tricky beast even under the best of circumstances. For my room and circumstances, I leave it off and manually tune my bass region with a combination of minidsp/rew and room treatment.
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Soulburner
spacecowboy said:
I wish more people listened to advice like this. It's surprising that most people actually buy receivers and processors solely on room correction when in most cases, they have no idea what it's doing to their room. They were just told, "get a receiver with Audessey...it has the best room correction." They then let Audessey (or any other RC software) run it's measurements and spit out some results, then they walk away not quite sure what just happened. Sound comes out of all the speakers (check). Their friend told them Audessey was the "best" (check). So they just walk away thinking that they "optimized" the sound for their room. Basically, if you can't/don't/won't check to see what room correction has done to your settings and sound, and if you don't understand the importance of treating your room, you could be robbing yourself of getting the most out of your system without realizing it. Equalization is not the be-all solution that it's made out to be - actually, it's a tricky beast even under the best of circumstances. For my room and circumstances, I leave it off and manually tune my bass region with a combination of minidsp/rew and room treatment.
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I generally agree, but will add I love what Audyssey does for the bass region. I think it is very good there. Above that, as you say, it gets tricky.
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Soulburner said:
I generally agree, but will add I love what Audyssey does for the bass region. I think it is very good there. Above that, as you say, it gets tricky.
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Yes, agreed. I never had a problem with what Audyssey does with bass. It handles bass better than YPAO, Onkyo, and MCACC. However for those who can learn the ropes of REW and grab a minidsp, great bass isn't limited to just D+M receivers.
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