Anthem D2 arrived today

polkfarmboy

Well my Anthem d2 arrived today and just unboxed it. The dealer told me it was upgraded for a client who traded it in but it still has the D1 on the face plate so I checked round back and all the hdmi inputs are there. I know it sounds exactly like a D2 and essentially is but I would have still liked it to say D2 on front

Here are a couple of snap shots and right now will just hook it up and listen for any differences vs the avm 40 on familiar music. With the price of this thing I better hear something mind blowing in my lil comparison

Clipdat

Love the obligatory shot of the cat sniffing/inspecting the new purchase.

Also, wow, lots of front panel buttons.

polkfarmboy

Doing the swap, I dont know what it it but I like the silver avm better

Clipdat

No way! Black components always look better!

polkfarmboy

Ok here is what I have noticed right away

When I play music I had to get up and check my center channel to make sure there was no sound coming from it. I could swear there is so I unplugged it and it still seems like sound is coming out of it lol.

I noticed that the highs are very sweet with a little more detail

Very airy in the vocal department, notes hit seem to last a little longer with greater decay

The speakers seem to get out the way a little more with rock

All in so far it has the same tone as the avm series but just small improvements here and there

The best quality about it is the way it up samples to 192 khz, this makes some crappy stuff like spotify premium sound way better than the avm

Netflix through the D2 looks really clean and I cant wait to hook up the darbet later for further improvements

Is it worth the increase in price on the audio side of things? Well first off its a HT pre and they are never going to ideal for 2 ch. From the setting I have both of them at now (no arc) and the limited bluray clips I have been throwing at them they sound identical I would have to say its not worth all that extra money but it puts the mind at ease knowing one cost more than the other lol

chumlie

Thats some serious dough for an AVpre. Whats the rest of your setup ? Must be killer if your puttin that kinda money in a pre.

polkfarmboy

I have a cheapo tube integrated that sounds way better than the D2 pre lol . I run the D2 into an anthem MCA 5 200wpc with Cheap MIT exp1 speaker cables and interconnects. The speakers I use are Martin Logan Vista fronts, Stage center and Source SE surrounds. It is a step up from the onkyo 607 with satellite speakers and hair thin speaker cables I started with 3 yrs ago. I think every upgrade I make has marginal improvements but it gets more expensive each time with less in return

zane77

Amen to return on investment as you upgrade

polkfarmboy

Watched a couple of dvd's I am familiar with last night and the dolby digital being upscaled sounded fantastic. The more I listen to this the better it gets, it handles pretty much everything I throw at it with 5 stars

Over the next couple of days I will run an identical ARK audio sweep to see the real differences

TG Meat

I am glad your enjoying it. Do you have any plans about getting an ARC kit for room correction. It really does a good job of taking the room out of your listening experience.

EndersShadow

TG Meat wrote: »

I am glad your enjoying it. Do you have any plans about getting an ARC kit for room correction. It really does a good job of taking the room out of your listening experience.

He's already got one see excerpt from quote above yours

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Over the next couple of days I will run an identical ARK audio sweep to see the real differences

polkfarmboy

The cool thing about the ARC is that you can use the same program for the avm and D2 and save and assign the settings to a diff file name. I wont even have to unpack the other ARC box and can just put it with the AVM when I sell it

Clipdat

Ugh, I need to read better.

Polkie2009

That looks like a heck of a pre/pro PFB! I have a feeling the black faceplate will grow on ya, it looks damn sharp imo. Keep us informed on the progress.

polkfarmboy

I kinda think this has more sex appeal

Polkie2009

I see what you mean when you pair it up to the silver faceplate amp:).

polkfarmboy

I think if I owned an anthem P5 I could get used to that look very easily. I had considered the Anthem P5 but the price difference is staggering. I have read that the P5 is basically just the same design as my mca 5 with a different face plate and a couple of more spendy components but it just sounds 99% identical. I think if I upgrade the amp I will have to fork out way more to get to the next level above the Anthem MCA