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Anthem ARC and Subwoofers - A quick review

For a while now I’ve been saying that a good room correction system was the best choice for most music lovers looking to integrate a subwoofer. Getting a subwoofer to sound glorious is hard work and ARC systems like the Anthem Genesis system promises to fix.

I’ve recently gotten to use an Anthem MRX 540 and evaluated it’s performance. To make a long story short it does a lot of things right, and stops juuuuuust short of doing great.

Like many ARC systems before it, Genesis leaves your system sounding too bright and lean. Not enough bass and too much treble. Here’s the good news: These issues are relatively easy to overcome and what it does right is the hard part:

  • Setting the crossover slopes and points
  • Minimizing bass nodes
  • Integrating multiple measurement points

The overall process to getting great sound with Genesis is the following:

  1. Measure the room
  2. Let Genesis do it's math magic and accept all of the settings but then ...
  3. Change the slope of the subwoofer and main speakers
  4. Raise the bass about 4 dB

I’ve written about the technical steps in detail here:

 

erik_squires
bjp9738's avatar
bjp9738
68 posts
 

One of my goals in this upgrade was also to get rid of excess gear.  So yes, I've given up some control but I also gave up a miniDSP, 3 external monoblocks and about 13-15 cables associated with all of it.  🤣

@erik_squires Interesting you should mention this.  I was very recently thinking about selling my AVM60 and associated Rotel RMB1585 5-channel HT amp and replacing with an Anthem 740.  My system is set up for dual duty 2-channel music and multi-channel HT.  I don't need the power of the Rotel anymore as I've added in some separates for 2-channel and using the HT passthru feature for movies.  I'd only get rid of one box in the end, but that'd free up a good amount of space and weight in my cabinet.  I'd love to hear your opinion on how the Anthem's internal amps do with loud, dynamic movie soundtracks.

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erik_squires OP
16,908 posts
 

hi @bjp9738  - So I feed L and R to my Luxman 507.  I just played Battlefield Los Angeles and it was pretty awesome. 5.1, all speakers high passed at 80 Hz.

 

I will say that even before calibration the MRX 540 sounded significantly more open and transparent than the AVM 50 it replaces.  Absolutely no complaints.

sunshdw's avatar
sunshdw
283 posts
 

I've got the STR Stack and I agree with saying the ARC will get you to a good start but I definitely tweaked the targets/setting to get it the rest of the way.

donquichotte
137 posts
 

I have a pair of Martin Logan 11A. I might be in a minority here but I didn't like what the ARC room correction did to the dynamics or overall tonal balance: bass became much too rounded, with an almost nonexistant leading edge or tactility and generally speaking much too subdued (I\m not a basshead, mainly classical and jazz listener). Yes, I tried tweaking the results, did multiple measurements to eliminate any possible measurement related mistake, etc.

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