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Reinforcing their reputation for high-end audio component
manufacturing, Anthem unveiled the D1 preamplifier/processor/ tuner, a superb
new offering from the company’s all-new high-end series, Anthem™ Statement. The
D1 is designed and built in North America on the same platform and incorporating
the same user-friendly
advanced
operating system as Anthem’s award-winning AVM 20. The similarities end here,
however. What ultimately separates the two is sonic performance. As an Anthem™
Statement creation, the D1 is ultimately more revealing, displays a greater
degree of musical precision and delivers unheard-of-resolution for music and
movies.
No matter what the music or movie source calls for, the D1
has the surround-sound mode to handle it, featuring all of the available Dolby®
and DTS® surround-sound modes, as well as the company’s own AnthemLogic-Music™
and AnthemLogic-Cinema™ modes. The D1 also includes all THX® modes: THX® Cinema
and Ultra2™ Cinema; THX® MusicMode; THX® Surround EX™; and THX® for DTS® ES. The
D1 takes surround-sound processing a major step further by including its own
built-in precision Upsampler which converts the sample rate of all incoming
digital signals to 192 kHz. The D1’s multiple AD1896 sample rate converters
upsample every channel of digital or analog-DSP input up to 192 kHz, including
decoded Dolby® Digital and DTS® program material (the first pre/pro on the
market to do this!). Since the D1 operates on all formats and all channels, the
result is a much higher level of transparency for both multichannel music and
movies. See the attached Technical Brief on “Upsampling in the D1” for more
information.
The D1 highlights Anthem’s own DSP design which uses two
Motorola® DSP 56367 chips to provide full bass management capabilities and
enough processing power to handle even the most complex algorithms. The
hand-designed circuit board ensures exceptionally low noise and a complete
absence of crosstalk, while massive toroidal power transformers minimize stray
magnetic field radiation and reduce residual transformer noise to provide a
smooth, noise-free flow of high-current power.
In today’s high-tech homes, consumers want great sound all
through the house. The D1 provides independent audio and video outputs for three
zones, and the Record Path can even be reconfigured to add a fourth independent
zone. The main digital source can also be copied to Zones 2, 3 and Record.
Alternatively, Zones 2 and 3 are independent of the main path, and of each
other. Selectable by source, they provide video and 2-channel analog audio
output with volume, bass, treble and balance controls to two completely separate
zone outputs. The Record Path offers the same flexibility, without tone
controls. The D1 can even operate two complete home theater systems at the same
time. Each set of outputs can also operate concurrently in different rooms
simply by including another amplifier.
While video scalers and video upsamplers can improve
picture quality, they often cause signal delays leaving the audio out-of-synch
with the video. The D1’s Audio Group Delay corrects for this in half-millisecond
increments for each source component and can be adjusted “on the-fly” without
having to enter the setup menu.
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