The Yamaha 3050 has YPAO which does OK with room correction but varies greatly each time you do it. The Anthem's room correction is supposed to be best in class so I'm excited to hear it in actios.
I think I've come up with a solution for my situation. I'm going to use the Anthem to power the 5.1 system and Zone 2. Then I'm going to use the Yamaha with a feed from the Anthem's line outs to power and control zones 3 & 4.
I believe I can do this in such a way that you won't need a degree in computer science to turn it on ... and have good sound!
The real issue as I have learned is sending a 5.1 signal to the main zone and a 2 channel downmixed signal to the other zones and have the sound be in sync on both. This is super important if say your 5.1 is in the family room and you have zone 2 in the kitchen which is next to the family room. If they're out of I didn't realize until I got into this how few receivers can do this.
Most receivers downmix the main if you send the audio to another 2 channel zone. The Yamaha can keep the main in 5.1 and send down mixed audio to the other zones. I am told (but need to verify) the Anthem can do this as well. If true, I should be able to get the best of both worlds - good sound in the main, all 3 of my other zones in sync and easy to use.
If anyone's interested in the details, happy to share.
I think I've come up with a solution for my situation. I'm going to use the Anthem to power the 5.1 system and Zone 2. Then I'm going to use the Yamaha with a feed from the Anthem's line outs to power and control zones 3 & 4.
I believe I can do this in such a way that you won't need a degree in computer science to turn it on ... and have good sound!
The real issue as I have learned is sending a 5.1 signal to the main zone and a 2 channel downmixed signal to the other zones and have the sound be in sync on both. This is super important if say your 5.1 is in the family room and you have zone 2 in the kitchen which is next to the family room. If they're out of I didn't realize until I got into this how few receivers can do this.
Most receivers downmix the main if you send the audio to another 2 channel zone. The Yamaha can keep the main in 5.1 and send down mixed audio to the other zones. I am told (but need to verify) the Anthem can do this as well. If true, I should be able to get the best of both worlds - good sound in the main, all 3 of my other zones in sync and easy to use.
If anyone's interested in the details, happy to share.