cdepaola Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Investigating some receiver options for a project and looking at everything from Anthem, Denon, Yamaha, and Audio Control. I've heard a few horror stories about Anthem in general and the C4 driver. I cant determine if the sources who told me this info has a personal problem with Anthem, the local rep firm, or there really are problems. Anyone running Anthem or have experience with them enough to give an opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejn1 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 I have an anthem avm60 and it has been solid with C4. On every blue moon it loses its IP address and i have to pull power to reset it but otherwise rock solid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 1 hour ago, cdepaola said: Investigating some receiver options for a project and looking at everything from Anthem, Denon, Yamaha, and Audio Control. I've heard a few horror stories about Anthem in general and the C4 driver. I cant determine if the sources who told me this info has a personal problem with Anthem, the local rep firm, or there really are problems. Anyone running Anthem or have experience with them enough to give an opinion. Anthem used another developer in the past for their MRX drivers and they had problems with the driver they developed. As such they approached us about developing a solid driver which we did and released a few months back. Has had extensive testing by ourselves, Anthem and a bucketload of dealers. An additional feature we added in that wasn't speced in the scope was that the driver automatically turns on the system when Playfi is detected. Pretty neat. c44me, c4toys, Crustyloafer and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crustyloafer Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 2 hours ago, alanchow said: Anthem used another developer in the past for their MRX drivers and they had problems with the driver they developed. As such they approached us about developing a solid driver which we did and released a few months back. Has had extensive testing by ourselves, Anthem and a bucketload of dealers. An additional feature we added in that wasn't speced in the scope was that the driver automatically turns on the system when Playfi is detected. Pretty neat. I'll second that, whilst I have installed dozens of Anthem MRX receivers using the Annex4 driver that Alan refers to, I had not had any significant issues with it to be honest. It was a little slow at switching inputs, which Alan's driver has resolved, but otherwise has worked perfectly for me so far. I am now using Alan's driver and as is usually the case from the Chowmain team, the driver has been excellent and and love the ability to switch easily between speaker profiles on the fly. In our showroom, we have a 5.1.2 channel Atmos system and have 4 separate speaker profiles configured. Using Alan's driver we can switch between a 5.1.2, 5.1, 3.1 or 2.1 channel configuration. Regarding Anthem AVRs themselves, they are pretty much the only brand we install unless the client's budget dictates otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardwareguy2068 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 I have had the MRX-720 receiver as my main AVR for over 2 years in my C4 setup. Zero issue. Sound is absolute incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstafford388 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 We sell plenty of Anthem. The only weird quirk is when you do the audio calibration you have to disconnect IP control through Control4 or it will bounce you from the calibration. Overall they have been pretty rock solid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejn1 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 13 hours ago, alanchow said: Anthem used another developer in the past for their MRX drivers and they had problems with the driver they developed. As such they approached us about developing a solid driver which we did and released a few months back. Has had extensive testing by ourselves, Anthem and a bucketload of dealers. An additional feature we added in that wasn't speced in the scope was that the driver automatically turns on the system when Playfi is detected. Pretty neat. So is your driver now the official anthem driver and Annex is not being recommended by anthem anymore? Also, what about the annex paradigm/Martin Logan soundbar drivers. Have you made new ones for those devices? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 29 minutes ago, ejn1 said: So is your driver now the official anthem driver and Annex is not being recommended by anthem anymore? Also, what about the annex paradigm/Martin Logan soundbar drivers. Have you made new ones for those devices? Thanks! As they are free, which would mean Anthem paid for them to be done, I would say so. http://www.chowmainsoft.com/drivers-for-control4-av will list what there is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Anthem contracted us to develop MDX, MRX, STR drivers. These drivers are provided for free and are available on our website. We also have a service contract which them which means we provide support for their drivers. msgreenf, edmsamo, c44me and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdepaola Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Thanks for all the info... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejn1 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 3 hours ago, Cyknight said: As they are free, which would mean Anthem paid for them to be done, I would say so. http://www.chowmainsoft.com/drivers-for-control4-av will list what there is Thanks, that was my suspicion also. I will switch the Anthem driver to Chowmain to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejn1 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo1738 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 MRX 1120 love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iMack Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Hi Has anyone an idea where to get a driver for Anthem Integrated 225 for use in a Control4 setting? Anthem doesn't answer my request. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 1 hour ago, iMack said: Hi Has anyone an idea where to get a driver for Anthem Integrated 225 for use in a Control4 setting? Anthem doesn't answer my request. It's on their web page under downloads....https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/type=integrated-amp/model=str-integrated-amplifier/page=reviews Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amblinfan Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Yeah, using new MRX740 with official driver and it’s been fine. I believe the issue with prior models was more the network hardware they used more than most. I usually used the serial drivers with the previous models but have used IP with success but this new driver works great even using as WiFi only instead of my trusty serial. alanchow 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mindedc1 Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Lots of Anthem discussions, just wanted to chip in on the Audio Control products. The Maestro X7 and X9 which share a common heritage with the JBL SDP-55 and several Arcam products (AV40 I think?) are spectacular audio performers, Dirac Live with bass management changed my world. At least on the Audio Controls flavor the Control 4 serial connection is unstable and the processor to die and become unresponsive over time. To the point where you have to power cycle it to control it. The IP driver doesn't seem to have the problem. Its hard to say whose fault it is as the serial driver spams the processor with constant request.. I.E. for cover art etc when the onboard audio sources have never been engaged etc... when the unit locks up you can see the C4 driver sending the request but no response. Ive seen this with my system and with some customer systems. I would buy again in a hearbeat, just use the IP drivers. I don't have any Anthem experience so cannot compare and contrast to that, I can say audio output is significantly superior to the Marantz I had before personally and is noticeably better than at least one (older) krell preamp. HDMI switching is quite fast and solid too...You can also disable the on screen display if you have a Lumagen or madVR Envy... good product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iMack Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 at RAV (sorry, quoting you is declared as spam!?!) Thank you for your efforts. It's not about the STR Integrated Amplifier but it's about the Anthem Integrated 225 (which I bought in 2012). If you know a link, which I didn't find, I would be very grateful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 On 3/12/2021 at 5:26 AM, iMack said: at RAV (sorry, quoting you is declared as spam!?!) Thank you for your efforts. It's not about the STR Integrated Amplifier but it's about the Anthem Integrated 225 (which I bought in 2012). If you know a link, which I didn't find, I would be very grateful! I didn't see the model number you posted and made the assumption it was for the current model. I don't suspect anyone made a driver for it, it's only recent that Anthem commissioned to have drivers premade. There are some old AV processor drivers in the database, but not for the integrated. Anthem has posted the codes, a serial or IR driver could be made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iMack Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Thank you for your efforts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejn1 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 I'm toying with the idea of selling my Anthem AVM60... Upgraditis is setting in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amblinfan Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 On 3/11/2021 at 11:53 PM, mindedc1 said: Lots of Anthem discussions, just wanted to chip in on the Audio Control products. The Maestro X7 and X9 which share a common heritage with the JBL SDP-55 and several Arcam products (AV40 I think?) are spectacular audio performers, Dirac Live with bass management changed my world. At least on the Audio Controls flavor the Control 4 serial connection is unstable and the processor to die and become unresponsive over time. To the point where you have to power cycle it to control it. The IP driver doesn't seem to have the problem. Its hard to say whose fault it is as the serial driver spams the processor with constant request.. I.E. for cover art etc when the onboard audio sources have never been engaged etc... when the unit locks up you can see the C4 driver sending the request but no response. Ive seen this with my system and with some customer systems. I would buy again in a hearbeat, just use the IP drivers. I don't have any Anthem experience so cannot compare and contrast to that, I can say audio output is significantly superior to the Marantz I had before personally and is noticeably better than at least one (older) krell preamp. HDMI switching is quite fast and solid too...You can also disable the on screen display if you have a Lumagen or madVR Envy... good product. Yeah agree i use an Audiocontrol XR6 as my head end processor and 2 5 channel ATI power amps. Had MRX720 prior and 7013, Audiocontrol outperformed them both prior to Dirac actually. Little quirky from time to time but IP driver works fine, sometimes a bit slow. mindedc1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundance Kid Posted December 8, 2022 Share Posted December 8, 2022 Any suggestion as to how I may upgrade MRX 720 to C4 driver using my laptop in details please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstafford388 Posted December 8, 2022 Share Posted December 8, 2022 12 hours ago, Sundance Kid said: Any suggestion as to how I may upgrade MRX 720 to C4 driver using my laptop in details please Not exactly sure what you're asking but if you just bought a new receiver and need to add it to your system you would need a dealer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanZ Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 On 7/19/2020 at 11:57 PM, alanchow said: Anthem used another developer in the past for their MRX drivers and they had problems with the driver they developed. As such they approached us about developing a solid driver which we did and released a few months back. Has had extensive testing by ourselves, Anthem and a bucketload of dealers. An additional feature we added in that wasn't speced in the scope was that the driver automatically turns on the system when Playfi is detected. Pretty neat. ** Nevermind -- I figured it out ** I am probably missing something but on the MDX driver I see volume controls but no actual "power" control for each zone. How do I actually turn a zone on/off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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