2. home-theater
  3. 153357-20253

Just purchased an Anthem AVM 50 to Frankenstein with my Luxman 507

I’ll be posting notes here about how this goes.

The overall goal was to add HT without breaking my 2 channel setup. It would have been nice to add full 4k HDMI switching but all those options which I liked were $2,500 or more. I got the AVM 50 for $650 + Tax.


90% of HT I watch is streaming, so audio quality is usually limited to DD+. I can output DD via optical from the TV and I can use the TV act as a 4K switcher. I can hook up my Oppo 103 directly to the 5.1 inputs. The AVM 50 will feed L&R to the Luxman amp directly, and all other channels go to 120 W Class D amps that have been collecting dust, plus my sub via XLRs.

Audio I can’t see any negatives, but there are a number of remote steps which need to happen.

  1. TV - Select source
  2. Luxman - Click ’separate’
  3. Anthem - Volume

For another $2K or so I could have gotten 4k switching (which apparently is unreliable in several brand of receivers) and saved myself step 1.
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,140 posts
 
I can has 8 channel LPCM over HDMI???? I so happy!


Just realized my Oppo BD player can decode True HD directly and feed my AV processor LPCM, and I only need 1 cable! Yeay!

erik_squires OP
16,140 posts
 
So, miraculously, everything is working. :)

I have 4K Roku, BluRay and my music streaming is all working and it's fabulous. :)

A boatload of cables.  Well worth spending the money on a receiver instead! Hahahahaha.
caphill
674 posts
 
I would use HDMI from the Oppo 103 to your Anthem AVM50 processor for movies. 
erik_squires OP
16,140 posts
 
I would use HDMI from the Oppo 103 to your Anthem AVM50 processor for movies


That’s exactly how it’s working now. :) Will need to see how it handles the high res formats though.

It has no problem with DVDs, but since the Oppo has BD audio decoding built in, but the Anthem doesn't, I'm in curious territory :)

caphill
674 posts
 
So, you're saying that your Anthem AVM50 does not decode DTS-HD Master Audio & Dolby True-HD found on bluray discs? 
The AVM50 can't be that old and I would think it would be able to support and decode those lossless HD audio formats on bluray discs. Even if it can't you can still use HDMI and set the HDMI configuration in your Oppo to output LPCM instead of bitstream for those bluray's lossless HD audio formats, so that way the Oppo will decode those DTS-HD MA & Dolby True-HD and sent them hi-rez LPCM via HDMI to your Anthem AVM-50. But for regular lossy Dolby Digital & DTS you can set the HDMI configuration in the Oppo back to bitstream. 

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