If I were in the market for a pre/processor today, I don’t think that I would look much further than the Anthem AVM 50 or its more refined brother, the Anthem Statement D2. The AVM 50 is basically the same machine as the D2, except that the quality of its AD converters and such isn’t quite as good. So for the ultimate in smooth sound, go for the D2. (Or if you just like its better looks.) But if your ears aren’t as golden anymore, the AVM 50 should do you just fine, and Sound And Vision Magazine has a small review of it and the matching MCA 50 amplifier from Anthem.

The cool thing about this pre/pro is that it can take any composite, s-video, or component signal, and convert it to HDMI. Not only that, it will deinterlace and upscale it as well. And to 1080p video at that! Amazing. The AVM50 has the highly-regarded Gennum VXP chip inside, doing all that video processing magic.

How about sound quality? While it may not measure up to the Statement D2, it is still a great sounding processor. The reviewer at Sound and Vision was quite pleased with it.

Add to that some extremely flexible surround modes, some great connectivity options, and the Anthem brand name backing it all up, and you’ve got a pre/pro that hardly anyone can beat for the price. Which is $4,699.

Anthem AVM 50 Preamp/Processor and MCA 50 Amplifier

When I first got my Pioneer 24tx a long time ago I used a digital SPL meter from Radio Shack to dial in all of the speakers. I also ran around the room with a measuring tape getting just the right distance down.

Fast forward a few years and now with my Pioneer 45tx I just plug in the microphone, choose automatic surround setup, and walk away for about 10 minutes.

So why am I boring you with all of this? If you have a receiver that must be manually calibrated our buddies at Engadget wrote a good little how to on dialing in your surround sound.

Do take note though, if your receiver does allow for automatic setup, use it. They are much more accurate than anything you can do with a meter because many of these newer surround setup programs like MCAAC will check the sound level for different frequencies on each speaker. This would be difficult to impossible for someone to do with just a meter.

For example, I believe that MCAAC on my pioneer looks at 5 different frequency ranges for each speaker. For a 7 speaker system (not including the sub) that would 35 different tests. I don’t know about you, but I would have one whopper of a headache listening to all that pink noise.

By the way I do still modify some of my settings each time I run MCAAC. The program likes to make my front speakers large and I like to turn up the center channel just a +.5db to catch every conversation.

Now if someone could come up with a system to first check my hearing, then tune the surround sound around me. That would be nifty!

How-To: Dial in your surround sound

My wallet is on the slim side compared to many people who can afford to buy the Krells, Lexicons, and Brystons of the home theater world. Even the Anthem D2 is out of reach for me. What does Anthem offer people like me who want everything but can’t afford it? Well, nothing. But to those people with just a bit more money than me, but who also can’t afford an Anthem D2, they offer the AVM 50 A/V Processor. The AVM 50 does basically everything the D2 does, but lacks that extra step of refinement that the D2 offers. And sells for significantly less with an MSRP of $4,699.

Which includes four HDMI inputs, and video upscaling of any source on any input to up to 1080p on the HDMI output. Now that’s cool. I have a PS2 that uses component video, a DVD player with the same, an HD PVR with HDMI, an S-VHS VCR (that’s still in use - don’t ask!), and this fall I’ll be adding an HDMI PS3 to that stack. A pre/pro like the AVM50 is exactly the kind of pre/pro I’d look for were I shopping today and had a little more money. Except for one thing. I guess it’s not fair to knock the AVM50 for not having this one thing, because nobody else does either. But that one thing is HDMI 1.3 support and support for the new audio formats on HD DVD and BD discs, like DD+ and DD TrueHD.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. But at least the AVM50 certainly looks nice!

Anthem Intros AVM 50 A/V Processor

Outlaw Audio works sells strickly over the internet. You know what that means - they pass the saving on to you! Yup, you’ve heard it many times before. Direct = better. With Outlaw Audio, however, they really seem to deliver.

Take (or buy!), for example, the Outlaw Audio Model 990 pre/pro. It’s got 7.1 channels of sounds. DVI switching. Flexible crossover control and lip-sync delay. A bevy of surround sound formats including Dolby ProLogic IIx. It upsamples audio up to 92KHZ/24bit audio resolution. It has 5 optical and 2 coaxial digital inputs. Uh… wait a sec. I could use more than just two coaxial inputs. Ah, well, I guess no product is perfect.

But this product comes very close for the very reasonable price of $1099.

Outlaw Audio Model 990 7.1 Channel Preamp/Surround Sound Processor

We’ve been waiting a long time for Anthem to ship their D2 processor, and that day has finally arrived!

This thing is a beast! Its primary focus is sound quality - you can get lots of the same bells and whistles in their AVM line of processors. But man these features are nice! Take a look. It’s got four HDMI inputs, video transcoding to component and HDMI outputs, a scaler that supports up to 1080p resolution, aspect ratio conversion, and more.

If I had the money to buy any processor I wanted, my choice would be between this one and Lexicon’s MC12B.

Anthem’s Statement D2 Surround Sound Preamp/Processor Now Shipping

There are lots of annoyances in the world. All the way from having your least favourite political party gain office all the way down to getting a pebble stuck in your shoe. But my HT receiver, an HK AVR500, has an annoyance that goes way beyond any of those. I mean, this is a top-quality, 100% Certified “True Annoyance”.

The receiver does not remember my OSD setting. I know! It’s awful! So if I’m watching a DVD and see “DD 5.1″ or “Volume -32″ in nice white letters on my display, I can turn that off by hitting he OSD button on my remote. But the next time I turn on the receiver, it’s back! There’s no way to turn this off permanently! And this is why I’ll never buy another HK receiver again, because I’m pretty sure they haven’t fixed this problem. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) I know it sounds like a little thing. But when you’re CONSTANTLY going into the AMP menu of your remote to fix the stupid OSD, it gets to be a bit much.

What’s annoying about your receiver or pre-processor? Maybe we can put all these annoyances in one post, and manufacturers will take note and actually fix these things. And by “annoyance” I don’t mean things like missing features that are available in higher end models, or things like that. I mean operational annoyances that the manufacturer should have fixed.

I know this site is new, and so I don’t have many readers yet. But I know there are some of you out there, so please drop by and leave a note!

NHT (Now Hear This) has always made some good looking and good sounding speakers. They thought creatively, not afraid to sell speakers in strange configurations in the name of quality sound. Now they’re getting into electronics, and have an amplifier and pre-processor.

From Twice: “The first products launched by NHT since its November 2005 acquisition by Vinci Labs include the home-speaker brand’s first component audio electronics. By the end of February, NHT will ship its first preamp/processor and power amplifier. Dubbed the Controller and Power5, they retail for a suggested $2,750 and $2,000, respectively.”

TWICE - NHT Puts Brand On Component Electronics