Anthem Statement A5 Multi-Channel Amplifier Review
As a firm believer in the importance of amplification in my home theater, I am always eager to hear the effect a change in amplification can have on the performance of my system. For the past few years, my daily driver speakers have been Paradigm Studio 100 v.5’s, powered by a Wyred4Sound MiniMC-7. The MMC-7 is a great class D amplifier, but that doesn’t mean I’m married to it either.
Anthem is Paradigm’s sister company, and has a sterling reputation in the AV community for building truly amazing products. Since the amps and speakers are designed by the same folks and are often used for demonstrations together by the manufacturer, I’ve always wanted to front my entire system with Anthem amplification.
Fast forward a few weeks, and Anthem’s Statement A5 has arrived on my doorstep. With an MSRP of $3999 and weighing a substantial 57lb (26kg), I knew this was a serious piece of engineering. Inside two very thick double boxes, the A5 shows the aluminum fins and design elements one would expect to see in an amplifier like this. Elements that may purely be for show, but are expected none the less. No different than a Ferrari buyer expecting class leading design in their car, Anthem products are a statement level piece, and they are designed to look like it on the rack. The anodized black finish of the A5 along with the flaring front baffle looks seriously badass. Sporting nothing on the front but a simple silkscreened Anthem logo, 5 blue LED’s, one for each channel of amplification and a power button next to its LED.
Even the back of the A5 is elegantly minimalist, with high quality binding posts positioned below the standard balanced and unbalanced inputs. The left side has a 12 volt trigger input and output, a selector switch for power-on modes, and a plug for the power cable.
This is minimalism done right, and I love it. The A5’s venting on top is well conceived and after running for 8 hours on my burn in bench, is only moderately warm to the touch. Impressive, considering this is a 250+W amp at 4 ohm impedance with all channels driven. See below for full power output specs:
According to Paradigm’s spec sheet, the A5 can draw 1800Watts from the wall, and has a THD+N of 0.001% with an IMD (Intermodulation Distortion) or 0.0005%. On paper and at first glance, this amplifier is a beast. Let’s see how it sounds.
The Sound
I actually reviewed the A5 with 3 different sets of speakers. I began with my Paradigm Studio 100’s, moved on to Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L’s and finished with Power Sound Audio MT-110’s. The chance to evaluate this amp across so many speakers was actually a tremendous benefit in this review, since I was able to A/B it against my Wyred4Sound.
Music Impressions
Here are the impressions from the Definitive’s and the MT-110’s in spoiler form so you can expand if interested:
Power Sound Audio MT-110:
Immediately apparent was the ability of the MT-110’s to play really, really loud. Fed by an Anthem A5, ear splitting levels were achieved with absolute ease.
I listened to a variety of my two-channel recordings including Mickey Hart’s Global Drum Project which remains one of my reference albums, Acoustic Alchemy’s Live in London, and to whole pile of others including B-Tribe’s Volume 5 and 6. On these more acoustic albums, the MT-110’s displayed a great ability to image, though commensurate with their price point did not live up to what I have heard from my Paradigm Studio 100’s or the Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L’s I just finished reviewing. When I switched genre’s to Metal and Rock, playing back albums like Satabon’s Carolus Rex or Pretty Maids’ Pandemonium the MT-110’s displayed a startling similarity to the sound you hear at loud venues – no doubt a result of the compression driver and high-efficiency woofer utilized. These speakers want to be turned up, loud!
Switching gears to movie and TV watching, I gave the MT-110’s a run through with Guardians of the Galaxy, TRON, and the newTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is where the MT-110’s really began to shine. They are capable music reproducers, especially for the crowd that likes to listen loud; but they are fantastic for cinematic mixes that get aggressive and need dynamic range. Turning my system up to reference level, the MT-110’s didn’t break a sweat taking all the power I could give them with nary a complaint. Unless you are already deaf, I can safely say that with good amplification [like the Anthem A5] your ears will give out long before the MT-110’s hit their limit.
Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L:
After proper set up, the ST-L’s truly shone in 2-channel mode, offering some of the best imaging I’ve heard from a sub $10K speaker. I played through my standard demo list including B-Tribe’s Volume 5, Acoustic Alchemy’s The Very Best of Acoustic Alchemy, and several albums from Mickey Hart including Planet Drum and Supralingua. The combination of percussion elements and world music is a real sonic treat and gives any speaker a workout. Dave from Definitive Tech also commented on several occasions that he wanted to pick up these albums, since they sounded seriously amazing on the ST-L’s. The built in subwoofer outputs extremely tight and solid bass which is fantastic for 2 channel listening. Since the MTM and Sub portions of the speaker are in separate enclosures the mids and highs remained extremely delicate and controlled no matter how hard the sub was working, especially important for many of the tracks I use in my reviews.
It bears mentioning again that these speakers image really well, portraying the artists wherever they are relative to the mic with pinpoint accuracy. While the level of holography isn’t quite up to the standard of a benchmark speaker like the Legacy Audio Focus SE, for less than half the price, it is truly astonishing how well the Mythos ST-L performs. The vocal in Sophie Milman’s In The Moonlight was rich, velvety and projected about 12 feet in front of the listener on center stage. On AIX Records Blu-ray release, the piano in Bryan Pezzone’s performance of Berceuse suffused the entire room just as one would expect from a close-mic recording.
Immediately apparent was the ability of the MT-110’s to play really, really loud. Fed by an Anthem A5, ear splitting levels were achieved with absolute ease.
I listened to a variety of my two-channel recordings including Mickey Hart’s Global Drum Project which remains one of my reference albums, Acoustic Alchemy’s Live in London, and to whole pile of others including B-Tribe’s Volume 5 and 6. On these more acoustic albums, the MT-110’s displayed a great ability to image, though commensurate with their price point did not live up to what I have heard from my Paradigm Studio 100’s or the Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L’s I just finished reviewing. When I switched genre’s to Metal and Rock, playing back albums like Satabon’s Carolus Rex or Pretty Maids’ Pandemonium the MT-110’s displayed a startling similarity to the sound you hear at loud venues – no doubt a result of the compression driver and high-efficiency woofer utilized. These speakers want to be turned up, loud!
Switching gears to movie and TV watching, I gave the MT-110’s a run through with Guardians of the Galaxy, TRON, and the newTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is where the MT-110’s really began to shine. They are capable music reproducers, especially for the crowd that likes to listen loud; but they are fantastic for cinematic mixes that get aggressive and need dynamic range. Turning my system up to reference level, the MT-110’s didn’t break a sweat taking all the power I could give them with nary a complaint. Unless you are already deaf, I can safely say that with good amplification [like the Anthem A5] your ears will give out long before the MT-110’s hit their limit.
Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L:
After proper set up, the ST-L’s truly shone in 2-channel mode, offering some of the best imaging I’ve heard from a sub $10K speaker. I played through my standard demo list including B-Tribe’s Volume 5, Acoustic Alchemy’s The Very Best of Acoustic Alchemy, and several albums from Mickey Hart including Planet Drum and Supralingua. The combination of percussion elements and world music is a real sonic treat and gives any speaker a workout. Dave from Definitive Tech also commented on several occasions that he wanted to pick up these albums, since they sounded seriously amazing on the ST-L’s. The built in subwoofer outputs extremely tight and solid bass which is fantastic for 2 channel listening. Since the MTM and Sub portions of the speaker are in separate enclosures the mids and highs remained extremely delicate and controlled no matter how hard the sub was working, especially important for many of the tracks I use in my reviews.
It bears mentioning again that these speakers image really well, portraying the artists wherever they are relative to the mic with pinpoint accuracy. While the level of holography isn’t quite up to the standard of a benchmark speaker like the Legacy Audio Focus SE, for less than half the price, it is truly astonishing how well the Mythos ST-L performs. The vocal in Sophie Milman’s In The Moonlight was rich, velvety and projected about 12 feet in front of the listener on center stage. On AIX Records Blu-ray release, the piano in Bryan Pezzone’s performance of Berceuse suffused the entire room just as one would expect from a close-mic recording.
With both the Definitive Technology Mythos ST-L’s and the MT-110’s from Power Sound Audio, the Anthem A5 was able to bring out a level of performance that significantly exceeded what I heard with my MMC-7. Sad as I am to admit it, this is the first time in ages I have a true case of “upgradeitis” and my amplifier is the target.
With my Paradigm Studio 100’s, the differences between the Anthem and the MMC-7 were more pronounced than I expected. There was a fullness and ease to the sound with the A5 that wasn’t there with the MMC-7. This wasn’t a change in tonality so much as a sense that the speakers had opened up and were finally displaying that last ten percent of performance. I ran through all my favorite demos, including Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, and was amazed at the change in upper register percussion elements. While the attack of each instrument was no less apparent with the A5, the presentation was smoother, and sounded somehow more natural than with the MMC-7.
I’ve heard folks before say that class D sounds “digital”, and while I have never agreed with that characterization, I can certainly say that the sound of the MMC-7 was for better or worse noticeably more clinical and less involving than that of the A5. Nuances that were equally apparent on both amps were more involving on the A5.
I’ve actually racked my brain a fair bit for a way to explain these differences without resorting to typical audiophile vocabulary. So here is my best attempt to explain the sound of the A5. It is above all a natural and involving amp that produces a totally uncolored sound. At the same time, music played back from the A5 is involving and cohesive in a way that it just isn’t with the MMC-7. Fancy adjectives aside, the simple truth is that my ears preferred whatever the A5 was doing to what I heard with the MMC-7, something very few amps I have reviewed have done so convincingly.
Home Theater Impressions
Film mixes are obviously less geared towards critical listening than two channel, so the differences between the MMC-7 and A5 were less apparent on almost all the speakers in question, until I used the Power Sound Audio MT-110s. In that case the difference was very pronounced, especially at higher listening volumes. The MT-110s really opened up and had a lot more visceral impact with the A5 than the MMC-7, which surprised me given their similar total output specifications. Perhaps this goes back to the old adage that sometimes “watts aren’t created equal” and as many purists would argue, amplifier class matters.
In the end, differences aside it is worth mentioning that the Anthem A5 is a truly bulletproof amplifier that handled home theater duty with complete composure, never once sounding strained nor sacrificing even the tiniest bit of detail and spaciousness in the sound across three different sets of speakers.
Conclusion
The last Anthem product I reviewed was fantastic. It outperformed the competition in both audio and video and had amazing features. I also criticized that product for its extremely high price of almost $8000 when the competition was much cheaper and not that much worse. We all realize at this point that there are diminishing returns on each dollar spent after a certain point, and I want to be clear that I don’t think everyone needs a $25,000 investment in AV.
That said, amplifiers are the cornerstone of your entire system and once you go with separates, they are an investment you can enjoy for decades if you so choose. It is through that lens that one has to evaluate a product like the Anthem Statement A5. There’s no mistaking Anthem makes high dollar, bulletproof gear no matter what they are building. In the case of the Statement A5, Anthem has delivered a product that while expensive, is worth every penny. For anyone looking for a truly superb all around performer that can go toe to toe with the best two channel digital amps while still functioning as the foundation of a high SPL no-compromise home theater, the Anthem Statement A5 deserves to be right at the top of your short list. Highly Recommended.
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