You are right Soix - many varibles must be taken to into account. Here are mine based on what I experienced. The AVR's were not in my system. They were lengthy auditions. Maybe some of the Anthem advocates in this thread are actual owners but I doubt if all are. The questions posed was if anyone has experience. Auditions, especially lengthy ones where the agenda is to find what the OP is looking for, is experience.
Listened to the Anthems at a dealer in 2 channel pure direct mode into Paradigm Studio 60's. Listened to Arcams at a different dealer in 2 channel pure direct mode into B&W CM9's (IMO both fairly comparable speakers). Brought along my own music that I know very well. The listening rooms were set up about as well as you can expect at a dealer. I wanted no subs or DSP mixed in so I could get a sense of their performance with as pure a signal as possible.
Again, to my ears, I was not impressed with Anthem. Reminded me of past mainstream AVRs (Denon, Yamaha, Pio Elite) I had and reaffirmed the reason why I went with separates for music. I was impressed with the Arcams but not enough to make a switch from the separate preamp I am using now. To be honest, I am not a fan of using AVR's for music period (looking to upgrade my 2 channel stuff right now for even better performance). But that is the discussion that the OP does not want to get into for whatever reason. I will respect that and stay on topic. The Arcam was as close as I got. Maybe NAD and Cambridge Audio should be checked out too - didn't audition these. Hope my experiences help.
Listened to the Anthems at a dealer in 2 channel pure direct mode into Paradigm Studio 60's. Listened to Arcams at a different dealer in 2 channel pure direct mode into B&W CM9's (IMO both fairly comparable speakers). Brought along my own music that I know very well. The listening rooms were set up about as well as you can expect at a dealer. I wanted no subs or DSP mixed in so I could get a sense of their performance with as pure a signal as possible.
Again, to my ears, I was not impressed with Anthem. Reminded me of past mainstream AVRs (Denon, Yamaha, Pio Elite) I had and reaffirmed the reason why I went with separates for music. I was impressed with the Arcams but not enough to make a switch from the separate preamp I am using now. To be honest, I am not a fan of using AVR's for music period (looking to upgrade my 2 channel stuff right now for even better performance). But that is the discussion that the OP does not want to get into for whatever reason. I will respect that and stay on topic. The Arcam was as close as I got. Maybe NAD and Cambridge Audio should be checked out too - didn't audition these. Hope my experiences help.