Oh how I love my AVM-20 (1 Viewer)

[Erik_C]

Curiosity got the better of me tonight, and I'm glad it did. I have an old Sony 7000 DVD player that I use to play CDs, as it ws lauded as a really, really good sounding CD player that happened to play DVDs, too. Supposedly it has top shelf DACs, so I always just connected it to my system via the analog outs. Well, I got to wondering how good the Anthem's internal DACs are, and hooked up the 7000 via its digtital output, too, so I could switch back and forth between the 7000 doing the DAC thing and the AVM-20 doing the DAC thing with a push of a button on the remote. What a difference!



The 7000, which I always thought sounded great, sounded as if there were a pillow placed in front of my speakers compared to how things sounded with the AVM-20 doing the digital conversion. Imaging tightened up, and everything just seemed more . . . there letting the AVM-20 do the digital conversion. Who'd've thunk it'd be such a huge difference?!?!
-Erik

 

[wayne p]

I recently had a similar, but perhaps more subtle, revelation with my AVM 20. A month or two ago I upgraded my rear speakers (I am running 5.1) to a set of Studio 20's to match the 100's & CC. It was my pre/pro's 1st birthday so I thought I would get it something nice.

Following a suitable break in period for the 20's I did some critical listening, making various adjustments and tweaks to insure I was getting the most from these great little speakers.

After listening to my favorite DVD-A's in analog direct I popped a Norah Jones CD into my Panasonic DVD-A7 and hit play. Normally I play CD's through the DVD input on the AVM 20, via toslink, in stereo mode or, on occasion, 6 channel direct, analog-digital conversion, as I usually have the prepro set up for bass management of DVD-A.

At that moment I was caught up in the music and just wanted more so I began to listen, with out changing from analog direct, at a realistic volume (-15dB). There is quite a dynamic range to Norah's vocals as she emphasizes certain words in track one and I noticed a slight sibilance I had never heard before. I was half way through the track before I fully realized something was amiss. Hitting the DVD input button on the remote immediately brought back the stunningly clean sound I was use to from this disc. I then went back to 6-ch resetting it to Anl-Dig and again the slight distortion was gone.

I can only conclude the DACs in the AVM 20 are a notch above those in the DVD-A7. I am surprised the reconversion taking place with 6-ch Anl-Dig setting still cleaned up the sound. I remain very impressed with this Anthem pre/pro.

Wayne

 

[DanielSmi]

It was my pre/pro's 1st birthday so I thought I would get it something nice.

LOL That's pretty sad Wayne . I've never thought of buying something for my receiver on it's "birthday".
Daniel Smith

 

[BenK]

It was my pre/pro's 1st birthday so I thought I would get it something nice.

And my girlfriend thought I was a geek

 

[Ted Kim]

The Sony 7000 DVD player was more highly regarded as an excellent Cd transport than as a CD player. The planethifi.com site when it first started up had a number of raves about it for that very purpose. So its no surpise you are getting some great results with the Anthem.