[robfine]

My house has a large great room : 35’ x 20’ x 13’-9” (h). On the far (from the kitchen) short wall there is an 85” Sony. When I built the house 12 years ago, the room had a Yamaha receiver (for ease of use for those who are not me) that had just gotten too outdated. I just replaced it with an Anthem MRX 740-8k receiver a couple of weeks ago. What a dramatic upgrade in sound. Voice legibility is really excellent. If per chance you have a receiver in mind, this is one to consider. I will probably at some point add 3 channels of new power amp(s) and use the Anthem’s in-unit power for my surround channels (you can switch like that on this model).

The first night I had it hooked up, I calibrated it to my speakers and room and got done at about midnight. Time for a little test-drive. I searched my movie channels and found “Wednesday”, a cute series based on the Adams Family. It all sounded good, very clear voices and the low level eerie noises popped out from all directions. Enough of that, I went and found Terminator 2. I put it on and skipped around a bit and it was sounding good, but okay…. And then I got to the point where they were telling the story of “when the machines first took over.” And then there it happened: the nuclear explosion!!!! 2 people in remote bedrooms awoke with screams!!! At that volume everything was no less crisp than anything else at lower (even high, but not as high) volumes. Needless to say, power is not a compromise. I am very happy with the new Anthem and highly recommend it.