Anthem AVM-70 8K

Is your priority multichannel or 2-channel audio?

I've been selling Anthem since 2008 and I've never heard of nor seen a blown speaker from the calibration process. This includes my former 8" full range 96db sensitivity speaker on my current Anthem STR Pre/Amp. If someone has torched their speaker with the ARC software, they're doing it wrong.

I have the AVM 70 - their software is fantastic - it is my 3rd Anthem - every Anthem I have owned (some of them were avr) have failed so make sure you have a good dealer to stand behind the product.  I only buy them because my dealer is great.  I don't believe their software will blow a speaker.  There are problems with the HDMI handshake and CIC control on these units.

I recently purchased an Onkyo to replace my Anthem which was in for repair - it uses the Dirac system that ARCAM uses.  I was shocked at how good the onkyo was - no glitcyness that was inherent in the Anthems.  Now the Onkyo is single ended - but I think I would rather have something that just works and sacrifice a little sound quality.  

My kid tried an Arcam - balanced great with Dirac - but the Amp in it blew up in 3 weeks.

When the next Anthem dies - I'm going back to Onkyo.

I was weighing an anthem avm 70 too against Sony’s new 5000, and after trying both, surround and dialogue clarity was better with the Sony. Both were better than my previous Marantz. Yes, the Sony is a receiver, but I use it as a processor.
 

obviously, surround and dialogue clarity depends a ton on your speakers and room, but this is my anecdote, and I save 1.5k too as the Sony is 2.1k vs the 3.7k.