Moving Home Theater 2 0 setup

Table of Content

• ANTHEM MRX 740 Home Theater Receiver, A Video Review
• What We’re Listening To – Winter 2022
• An unbelievable value in speakers. Don’t walk, run out and listen to the ELAC DEBUT 2.0 SERIES.
• The latest video from AVForums
• Anthem MRX 740 Receiver Review
• Question Starting a home theater setup with 2.0
• Advice for 2.0 Setup Floorstanding

On an individual basis, I think it would be fair to say it was the little OW4.2 on wall speakers’ performance that surprised me the most. Their low-profile design and the smaller mid-woofer driver did not have me expecting very much initially. But ARC found them to have a low-enough reach to set an 80 Hz crossover automatically and my ears found them to be able to throw a massive and convincing rear sound field. For movies, rear effects sounded big and bold when they needed to, yet there was plenty of detail to render the subtleties of things like raindrops, birds chirping and distant sound cues effectively. The little OW4.2s were more than able to keep up with the larger front 3 speakers in painting a complete and enveloping sonic picture. Best of all, not only were sounds panning from back to front seamless in image and timbre, but pans that moved from side to back to other side were completely convincing.

At this point, I shifted away from vinyl and towards digital. I queued up “Cold Flesh Citadel” by Katalepsy to see how the speakers handled very percussive lows that contrast with the highs. I have noticed that with this particular song, lower quality earbuds turn the kick drums into a kill-switch that effectively mutes the higher range.

ANTHEM MRX 740 Home Theater Receiver, A Video Review

The only way to truly find out which one you’ll like the best is to go and audition them. A full-blown 5.1 receiver is not required but it is nice to have. Hooking up all your inputs to the receiver and only having one HDMI cable to the TV is one plus.

If the budget is really tight, the Boston Acoustics A360 are a great deal at $330 a pair. Pairing the wrong speaker with any amp and it will sound like crap. Bookshelf bass managed will definitely allow you to juice the volume even though that room is quite large.

What We’re Listening To – Winter 2022

The electric bass solo in this song was great food for the subwoofers. The notes had plenty of punch and dimension along with some good string detail that I was able to pick out from the bassist’s aggressive plucking style. Another great sounding test track was “It Was a Lover and His Lass” from the a cappella group Zephyr. Twelve vocalists, recorded in the round, with no other instrumentation would be useful in assessing the critical midrange performance of each individual speaker. The Debut 2.0 system sailed through this track creating the convincing illusion of being surrounded by vocalists ranging from sopranos to baritones. Each speaker seemed to have an identical midrange character, all were very clean and revealing, showing off the lovely tonal purity that these singers all have.

Please refer to the above video to see how the subwoofer’s app-based auto calibration routine works. In my standard HT setup, I also have four GoldenEar SuperSat 3 speakers mounted high and aimed at the listening area for use as Dolby ATMOS height speakers. The speakers were all controlled and powered by an Anthem MRX 1120 HT receiver with an OPPO BDP-103 Universal Player as the source. All the speakers were acoustically dialed in using Anthem’s ARC room correction system and were crossed over to the subs at 80 Hz. This setup left the two ELAC bookshelf speakers without a job until my son’s bedroom stereo speakers decided to give up the ghost.

An unbelievable value in speakers. Don’t walk, run out and listen to the ELAC DEBUT 2.0 SERIES.

The ELAC speakers had no problem with this, the kick drums and slamming guitars did not hinder the highs at all and yielded a complete, undisturbed musical experience. After that, I set about the task of throwing music at the speakers with no particular pattern in mind, listening for any issues that I could perceive. Remarkably, I was able to make out some structure in Taake’s “Manndaudsvinter” demo, which normally sounds like one long, insurmountable fuzzed-out power chord through earbuds. Overall, these speakers made a fine replacement for the enfeebled and rapidly deteriorating ones that I used before. The SUB3010 Subwoofer is a modestly sized 14” cube containing a front-firing, 10”, doped paper, long-throw driver. This works in tandem with a down-firing 10” passive radiator to help get to the lowest frequencies and maximize output.

The cabinet shape is slimmer and deeper than the original Debuts, copping a little “Euro-Chi-Chi” style action from ELAC’s Uni-Fi Slim lineup. Internal bracing has been improved so as to dampen any unwanted cabinet resonances, and the brushed vinyl look of the original Debuts has been replaced by a black ash textured wrap finish. As we look at the drivers, the 1” silk dome tweeter is similar to that of its predecessor model but has been updated with a wide-roll surround and new waveguide to help with overall response and improve directivity. Handling the midrange and woofer duties are three identical 6.5” aramid fiber drivers.

Great music helps feed the soul and inspire creativity, and also provides for the occasional distraction. If he had a personal philosophy, it would be; always be open to learn something new and don’t take yourself too seriously. Specifically when it comes to audio reviewing; honesty and a good balance of objective and subjective observation is key. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two young sons and a pair of hyperactive dachshunds. Or is that two hyperactive sons and a pair of young dachshunds?

Again, there was lots of detail retrieval in the individual notes, with good tonality, and I could easily make out Walker’s breathing during his playing. I want to say that some of the highest notes were a little mellower sounding than I remember on some other speakers that I like but not objectionably so. “Smooth and clean” are the top-of-mind descriptors that I wrote in my notes. Same applies to the accompanying piano which stayed more in the higher registers than the one in the Gorka track.

Anthem MRX 740 Receiver Review

Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room…As he grew older, he would spend countless hours in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed and appreciation for good music, and for good sound reproduction. The question of what makes one piece of equipment sound better than another is something that he’s always found fascinating. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman.

As such, the back of the SUB3010 features no controls whatsoever. All that resides on the sub’s back panel is the L-R/LFE input jacks, a status LED, a small Reset button and a USB connection for servicing. As with the other Debut 2.0 speakers, the SUB3010 is finished in a textured black ash wrap. Let’s start by examining the individual speakers that make up this ensemble. The ELAC Debut 2.0 F6.2 floor-standing loudspeaker is a three-way, rear ported bass reflex design.

I don’t know what magic sauce Andrew Jones used to garnish these little dynamos but let’s just say they had me “eating my hat” on more than a few occasions! If I had one nitpick about them, it would be that I wish that the binding posts were mounted in recessed pockets built into the top or a side of the cabinet. I think it would just make for an easier time of hooking up the speaker wire during installation.

My own home theater is in a basement room and the inherent layout makes the use of on-wall surround speakers a requirement for me. These speakers use the same tweeter as the other models and a 4” version of the Aramid fiber mid/woofer exclusive to it alone. The simple box enclosure is surprisingly shallow at barely 4” of depth. It’s designed to use the natural acoustic reinforcement provided by the wall (along with two down-firing ports) to extend its bass capability beyond what one might initially expect. As a load, it also should present a non-issue for most HT receivers available today. The line has also been expanded with an additional center channel speaker size and an on-wall surround speaker option.

This essentially creates a modest “House Curve” that I find restores the bass impact that I look for in movies and music without bloating the overall bass sound. The twin SUB3010 subwoofers acquitted themselves really well in my listening room. Once calibrated, the multiple subs evened out bass response across all four of our seats. And the subs now had a tight, punchy sound quality that worked well with everything we listened to. The fact that they were also physically small and easy to place was an added bonus. The price, size and performance aspects of these subs make a good case for purchasing them in multiples.