Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Anthem Receivers powering Axioms?

I had a delay in picking up my Anthem due to work and some personal stuff going on. Decided to go with the MRX-300 since it will be paired with my Emotiva XPA-3. If all goes well, I will be picking it up today.

Soooooooooo....................

WOW!!

The Anthem paired with the XPA-3 plus running ARC has REALLY opened up my front soundstage. Don't think I will ever have the desire to go back to another Denon product. Considering I have owned about 5 Denon receivers in the past 8 years, that is saying a lot.

I would HIGHLY recommend other folks take a hard look at the Anthem receivers, especially with the 180 and M80s...

My only complaint was the lack of dual HDMI outputs since I have a projector and plasma. I purchased a powered splitter so it solved that problem.

Anthem doesn't add a a whole lot of bells and whistles...but they make a great sound producer.

Hum...I asked a very well respected member on another forum about the new Anthem Avr using their ARC processing? He flat out told me ...he can't understand how a small Canadian owned company can afford the money and commitment in RD and employing the several engineers, most with PHD no less to really suceed in this kind of venture. He'll take Audyssey's labs processing who have put in years and have spend millions in product research and development...but he did say he really loves his Anthem amp FWIW.

Just saying...Bill

Probably because he's ignorant of the reality.
Sonic Frontiers/Paradigm/Anthem is not a 'small' company unless you are trying to compare it to the likes of Sony, and has been around for decades now.
See the excerpt on company history at the bottom of this pdf outdated now, but released in 2001.
http://archive.anthemav.com/OldSitev1/pdf/pva7press.pdf

There are much smaller companies in audio selling far more pricey boutique electronics and surviving.
It sounds more to me like this respected forum member already has their opinion (a negative one) of Anthem's AVR and can't personally understand why they are successful when obviously droves of other people think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
(no, i do not own an Anthem AVR)

Does that guy realize Anthem is owned by Paradigm, ya real hard to figure out how they can afford all that R&D.

I did state that he owns Anthem products and in particular the MCA 20. I asked him specifically about it because I'm thinking about buying one ... . ARC...is still relatively new and judging by some of the comments creeping up over at AVS they're still working out some of the kinks with plenty of firmware updates...again...

Just saying...

looking for a generally positive opinion of anything on AVS is fruitless.

Agreed...but there is some valuable infromation being shared daily...I usually stick to owners threads and look for relevent topics within those threads.

Bill

Here again, I would concur with all that this particular person questioning the capabilities of Anthem just doesn't understand the history of the company. Paradigm has over 300 dealers in the US alone. When Paradigm purchased Sonic Frontiers, they were already a well established yet, relatively small "audiophile" company offering "high end" electronics so the equipment that evolved out of it after the purchase such as the Pre-Pros and amps were just a natural progression. Paradigm, of course, was a bigger company with deeper pockets, who could move things along to the next level. You might want to check out their HO in N. Mississauga, it isn't exactly what one would call a "hole-in-the-wall" establishment.

I am sure that if Ian and the guys at Axiom thought that in years past that the purchase of such a company as Sonic Frontiers or any other similar organization would have been in their best interest and expand their product line, they would have done so. I may be wrong but I would think these very expensive "boutique" lines would be more difficult to sell within a company that has committed itself to selling its products strictly over the internet. The problem is nowadays and probably because of the perennially weak US economy, there has been a lot of consolidation in the CE industry. I gather everyone in the business is watching their pennies.