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Matching Speakers to Anthem MRX1120


Jaad

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Hello all,

 

My first post in the community. 

 

I recently purchased an Anthem MRX1120 receiver.  The receiver powers 11 channels and 2 sub-woofers.

This new receiver is upgrading my setup from a 5.2.2 to a 7.2.4

 

The receiver can supply 140Watts to fronts, center, surround and subs with an A/B type amplifier while the back channel and elevation is 60Watts supplied by a D type amplifier.

 

I am currently researching what speaker to buy that would match my receiver the best.  I am more precisely looking to purchase back channel speakers and Atmos elevated speakers; and it is a lot more complicated than I first thought.

 

My current setup:

 

RP-260F fronts

RP-250C Center (but will be upgrading to RP-450C soon)

RP-160M Surrounds

R-110SW subs x 2

 

I contacted Anthem to ask if I could use RP-160M as my back speakers and they said it wouldn't be a problem as long as I do not change cross-over setting that ARC had set them. 

As far as Atmos is considered I was thinking of getting 2 pairs of RP-140SA that I would mount high on the wall.  ( I don't believe in putting them on top of floor speakers and bouncing them off the ceiling theory myself.)

 

What I have problem to reconcile is this:

 

the RP-160M are 100Watts with 400Watts peak

the RP-140SA are 50 watts at 200Watts peak

 

I'm worried that I am going to ask too much of the little 60 watts amp on the receiver by putting the RP-160M as back.  I have considered putting another pair of RP140SA as back mounted mid- wall.  the thing is I really like having great sound.  I love the current speaker I have but I never heard the RP-140SA yet -  if my instinct is correct I have a feeling that they won't cut it for me just like my RP-250C is not cutting for me right now.

 

I have never owned a 7.x.x home theater before so I don't know how much signal is sent to back channel yet.  My guess is probably the same as elevation channel and reason why Anthem went with a smaller D type amp for the back and height channel. 

 

I also listen to music and having the ability to run all channels might tempt me at some point.  I also have a girlfriend that loves to crank the system from time to time.  I worry that she won't hear the clipping that might happen with the back and height.  I could in just remove them from the equation while playing music by crating another listening configuration file just for music(I can create 4 different profiles total)

 

So what do you guys and gals think?  I want to stick with the RP series  I just don't know what will work best?  any suggestions?

 

Cheers

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Indeed if you are going for separates you will find the AVM60 to be quite amazing.  It's really the same as the 1120 without amplification but with lot better connectivity to real power.  Personally, I have never owned anything better especially when you match them to Klipsch.

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  • 9 months later...

I also have the 1120. My set up is:

LCR 2x RF-82 & RC-62

Surrounds 4x RS-42II

Atmos 4x CDT5800II

Subs 2x Paradigm Monitor 12

 

The 1120 handles everything very well - movies, games, music (streamed). I am soon going to 3x RF-7III's for LCR. I am tempted to go with a separate amp for the LCR but initially I will use the 1120 for all.

 

For music I don't use the "all channels" option but rather I usually use the Anthem Music setting that uses the additional speakers for room fill without taking away from 2ch imaging. Sitting in the sweet spot I don't really notice the other speakers but if I walk 12 feet back to the bar area the back surrounds fill and match nicely to the fronts. In "all channel" mode it is just too much from all the other speakers.

 

You can create a separate speaker profile for music listening and tweak the surround speaker levels to match your taste.

 

Edited by kevyh
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You are going to be just fine with your plans.... I have the MRX 720 and I am using an additional Adcom amp to power the rear Dolby speakers. 

 

I currently am using RP-150ms for surrounds and Klipsch 140SA for front heights and PSB Imagine XA's for rear Dolby speakers – I cannot mount rear heights so I have to make do with the beaming effect of Dolby-enabled in the rear. 

 

All of the RP series are very efficient and you're not going to run into power issues with the Anthem. 

 

If you're running 140SAs for front height and rear height, it won't have exactly the same directional atmos efffect as in-ceiling speakers, but mounting is much better than setting them on top of your speakers for sure. I am very happy with my atmos setup (front heights and rear DE-speakers); in my small room I'd say it gets me 90% of the effect. 

 

You will want to make sure you are setting up things correctly in ARC when you set up and calibrate your system. I don't know how it works in the 1120, but I have to assign the rear amps in the 720 in ARC to which set of speakers they should power (I use the front heights). 

 

Dolby-enabled (speaker top projection) speakers generally require crossovers to be set pretty high (I think 250Hz is Dolby spec) to eliminate directionality. But if you are mounting the 140SAs as heights, I have found that a crossover setting of around 150Hz works extremely well for me. 

 

The other thing you may need to do is once you have ARC calibrated, go into the "Levels" setting on your remote (NOT the Input setup, this will break ARC measurements) and bump up your front heights, rear heights, etc to suit the effect you want to get. Mine are set for about +8. 

 

Hope that helps. The Anthem MRX series are incredibly powerful AVPs and they sound fantastic.

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I have a 720 running 5.1.4, with RP160/RP250C/RP150. Subs are NHT Evolution, and I have 4 NHT DAEs on top of each 160/150.

 

Anthem ARC (correcting up to 200Hz) works very well in my room, and the 720 has no problem driving the system loudly and cleanly. 

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