I can't say i've had any issues with the AVR either when it comes to noise floor. With nothing playing and everything turned on, there's zero noise. On the most quiet tracks i could find, i never heard any 'background' noise that couldn't be attributed still to the recording. Certainly no evident hiss like there is playing old cassettes.
I've read through a number of the Amir reviews and had the question about what is audible. They've described it a few times if you can find those posts and what he measures provides the "potential" for sound issues at which depending in part on some gear, most especially things like speaker sensitivity, then something like a noise floor or a spike in a frequency could become noticeable, BUT if that happens when playing back music for example, could you ever pick it out? Or are these artefacts mostly noticeable if only playing pure tones? At what point could these background noises be picked out during music playback?
Really, Amir puts the gear into various categories and if anything, those in the red are the ones you might question at least with a cocked eye. The bulk, certainly over 50%, of what he's measured falls into the yellow and green so probability of hearing something substantial that actually takes away from the listening experience decreases.
Plug into all that the question about cost, and everyone has themselves up in arms. Would i want to pay $3000 for an Anthem processor that falls into the yellow or (eech) the red category?
Hell no.
When you have Denon AVRs measuring high in the greens for half that price....i mean come on. Try and complain about that if you will at an engineering level, but them show me the proof how the Anthem outperforms the Denon. Much like others have noted, chances are side by side in a sound A/B comparison, you would notice little difference as overall quality goes unless that ugly, measurable artefact is bad enough that it becomes relevant.
Bottom line, overpriced stuff is often just overpriced. It doesn't equate to better sound.
Just like wine...
