Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Anthem 520/720 Denon X4200?

I have not used a Denon processor so I can't comment on how they sound. I had my stereo temporarily setup in the front sitting room of my house while I made my own dedicated music/media room in the basement. After moving down, I found that the sound i was getting was not as good with a reduced sound stage and limited dynamics. Turns out that the dimensions of a room does play a big part in what you hear.

I was using a Pioneer that was exchanged for a Yamaha, then went to a Marantz. Throw in there an Integra for a week, trying different external amps to see if that would help. Still just didn't sound right.

I was convinced as the last ditch effort that Anthem has a great unit and their ARC could do wonders so I bought it.

Out of the box with no room correction at all and the sound improvement was clearly noticeable. I have improved the sound again without even applying the room correction just using the ARC software to better understand what is going on for each speaker and how just repositioning them in the room effects their sound.

I did purchase the AVR-60 that is a pre-amp, but believe that the MRX-720 has all the internals that my pre-amp has for sound and does the Atmos if you want better movie sound.

JohnK might be right on paper that "if" they are well-designed then there should be little to no difference. My ears have told me otherwise. Anthem with their current model stripped out many of the bells and whistles that honestly I have never used. I lost Apple AirPlay but for $70 could add it by hooking up an AppleTV. I just wanted good sound and finally found it.