At a crossroads, where to go with my home theater

Polkie2009

That Anthem looks like a sweet unit, but it won't do Atmos or DTS Neo X lossless correct?

notified

Man that is a extraordinarily sweet deal,when I googled them they go for 11,9 ca,if I could afford it and was anywhere near you I'd enthusiastically snap that up! Definitely buying a lottery ticket.But allow me to extend my condolences if you bought it new as like you said the drawback to buying into the ultra high quality HT market is that it seems that they intergate new surround modes every 3-5 years which dramatically effect their resale value with the high ended buyers wanting the latest and greatest. Its unfortunate that they cant design them in a fashion that would allow them to be buy-able add on formats

stangman67

Thanks for the comments and offers. The d2v looks like a great unit but I'll pass. I've gravitated towards doing a basic 2 channel setup with a 356bee or pm8005 and either my lsi15's or 705's. Chasing making a stereo that does both to my liking is going to be too expensive, even the d2v plus a new amp and player is going to be incredibly expensive. The simplicity of a 2 channel system with a integrated amp and source is caling my name.

polkfarmboy

Well the Anthem D1 started out with no hdmi then you could upgrade it to D2 for hdmi but it was 1.1 that meant you had to decode and unpack the codec in the bluray player. Then the anthem came out with 1.3 so the d1 was then upgradable to D2. Then again the brought out the 3d pass through so you could upgrade to d2v 3d. Not bad for a preamp thats about 7 years old. Its only now that they decided to retire it and bring out the cheapy cheap Anthem 60 preamp but its more like an avr with no amps. Chris johnson designed the analog circuits in the D1 but left the company so the new Anthem 60 can do all the latest codes but does not have the analog output like the d2v he designed so its no good for two channel.

Here is a funny story, I was selling an Anthem. D2v and got a message through ebay asking if I would not mind talking on the phone about the D2v. I said ok and got a call, the caller said hello my names chris johnson and I want to buy your d2v and asked for the serial number. I said I suppose your chris johnson, founder of sonic frontiers and you coincidently designed the D2v ' Yes thats correct, thats me' he then asked for my bank details and I said this is a joke! Is this some one from the polk forum trying to punk me? He started laughing and said that it was him and he was dead serious about buying the Anthem D2 as he upgrades them to 3d and sells them.

After a few emails and verification it turned out it was Chris johnson and he wired money into my bank and sent out shipping labels and was a real nice guy! I did business with him on a few occasions after that with D2v preamps I took in for trade.

WagnerRC

Nice story thanks

Polkie2009

Awesome story there PFB, glad to hear it all went smoothly. So when Chris does the upgrades, does he do anything to add the Atmos or DTS NeoX lossless ?? I have to ask, with the Anthem gone, what are you going to go with for the HT?

polkfarmboy

I was awaiting updates from Theta as they just released their new chipset so its a matter of software and how they are going to do atmos.

Chris adds the 3d video module and looks for serialised units above 423000.

Polkie2009

That Theta equipment looks quite nice! American made correct?

polkfarmboy

Yes all mericn!

stangman67

I listened to a NAD 356bee yesterday here in Singapore on a set of Dali speaks. No Polk available to listen to but the NAD sounded wonderful. Leaning towards doing Lsi m703's because presumably my listening room will be fairly small. Also like what I hear about the bookshelves being more lively than their tower big brothers

stangman67

Figured I'd throw out a quick update as a few weeks of research has brought some new equipment. Ht is staying the same(might Even dismantle as movies just aren't that important to me)

Picked up some lsim703's during the friends and family sale and a Teac AI-2000 integrated, descendant of Esoteric and same amp internally as the music hall a70.2. I'll be using a raspberry Pi with iqaudio dac to handle the flac streaming and looking to get into vinyl with a project debut carbon tt.

Thanks to those that pushed me in the 2 channel direction, I'm excited to get all this setup when I get back from deployment!

mikeyb128

For me 2 channel is much more rewarding. It's easy to build a home theater, and tough to find great synergy with a 2 channel system. I'm new to 2 channel audio, but in the last year I've learnt a lot, and only just in the last month or so have things really dialed in. Congratulations and you have broke ground on the 2 channel black rabbit hole, say goodbye to your savings

BlueFox

F1nut wrote: »

The bright sound in 2 channel is a result, first and foremost of your amp and source.

LOL. This is correct.

My HT also uses the Onkyo SC5509 pre/pro, and I use it in Pure Audio mode for stereo. While not up to the two channel system, it sounds pretty darn good. In fact, now that my house is being remodeled, I have to use the HT for full time listening, since the two channel is torn down.

The system is a sum of its parts, and if something is not up to snuff then the weakest link influences the sound. For me, my HT is mostly hand-me-downs from two channel upgrades, so it works pretty good.

HT system;

Onkyo SC5509 pre/pro
Cambridge Audio 840W amps (2 in bridged mono) for fronts
Sunfire TGA-5400 amp for center/rear
Bryston BDP-1 file player - stereo source
Auralic Vega DAC - stereo source
(Lumin S1 file player/DAC from two channel is temp stereo source)
Oppo 103 - video source
Xbox One

Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers - front
PSB Synchrony One - rears
PSB Synchrony One Center - center

MIT Shotgun S1.3 balanced Interconnects
Shunyata Venom speaker cables
Shunyata Anaconda AES digital cable for BDP-Vega
Shunyata Anaconda XLR IC from Lumin to Onkyo

All Shunyata power cords
Shunyata Triton V2 power conditioner
Dedicated 20 amp line

tonyb

Fox, you still have those 7T's ? I've been jonesin' to get an ear on the 20t's but have yet to locate any. I've heard the 10t's and was very pleased with the sound.

BlueFox

tonyb wrote: »

Fox, you still have those 7T's ?

Darn right. At 10K I am not giving those away. Plus they sound great.